Abstract: Shallow Domestic Gas from Cherokee (Desmoinesian Series, Pennsylvanian System) Rocks in Bates County, Missouri

SMITH, DAVID C.

Domestic gas has been produced in T38N, R32W, Bates County, Missouri from rocks assigned to the Cherokee Group (Desmoinesian Series, Pennsylvanian System). Driller's logs submitted to the Division of Geology and Land Survey during the 1940s indicate gas production from carbonaceous shales and sandstones occurring at relatively shallow depths.

Watson No. 1, drilled in Sec. 10, encountered gas pressure of 52 pounds per square inch in carbonaceous shale from 188 to 193 feet. Production was estimated at 50,000 cubic feet per day. In Sec. 16, McGennis No. 1 measured a pressure of 42 pounds per square inch in carbonaceous shale from 175 to 185 feet in depth. Additional gas was reported in black shale at 253 feet, in sandstone at 295 feet, and in sandstone from 415 to 422 feet. Propeck No. 1 in Sec. 21 encountered 38 and 40 pounds per square inch gas pressure in black shales occurring from 170 to 176 and 258 to 261 feet, respectively. These logs do not record the presence and thickness of coal beds that occur beneath the black shales.

Logs of seven coal tests drilled in T38N, R32W, during the late 1800s or early 1900s record the stratigraphic positions of black shales, coal beds, and sandstones in Desmoinesian and Atokan rocks. These coal test logs permit correlation of the gas well logs.

Coal test drilling indicates that coal horizons are present but not logged below gas-bearing carbonaceous shales encountered in the Watson, McGennis, and Propeck wells. Spatial relationships of the two lithologies suggest that both carbonaceous shales and coal beds were the source of domestic gas production during the 1940s.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90944©1997 AAPG Mid-Continent Section Meeting, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma