Structural and Stratigraphic Compartmentalization at Cave Gulch Field, Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Kimberly Doupe
Colorado School of Mines, Geology and Geologic Engineering
Golden, Colorado
[email protected]

Cave Gulch is a significant gas field, with proven reserves of over 600 billion cubic feet. The field is located at the northern edge of the Wind River basin in Wyoming, and is an intensely faulted anticline in a subthrust setting beneath the Owl Creek thrust. Production is from fluvial sands of the Paleocene Fort Union, and Upper Cretaceous Lance, Meeteetse, and Mesaverde Formations. This study aims to determine the occurrence of subseismic-scale faults and sand body dimensions using analysis of borehole image logs, and air photo interpretation, respectively. With the data collected, a structural and stratigraphic model will be built. The models will provide an optimal infill-well spacing plan, and how the subseismic-scale faulting and discontinuous sand bodies affect compartmentalization in the field.

The data for this study is a set of eleven Schlumberger Formation MicroImager logs from Cave Gulch. Each of the logs will be interpreted for faults, fractures, bed boundaries, and other geologic features. Dip domains will be determined using cumulative dip, and dip azimuth vector plot; inflection points are separate dip domains or faults, respectively. The fault orientation data will be compiled into a set and used as input for a 3-D structural model.

Air photos of the fluvial-sand deposits will be interpreted to quantify the sand body geometry. Fieldwork will be undertaken to examine outcrops and to improve air-photo interpretation. The sand body geometry will then be used as input for a 3-D stratigraphic model.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90033©2004 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid