New Facility Offers Public Access to Important Rocky Mountain Core and Data

Mark Milliken¹ and Dave Foster^2
1Navarro Research and Engineering Inc., Casper, WY
²Omni Laboratories, Casper, WY

In collaboration with Omni Laboratories based in Houston, TX, the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) is establishing a public core repository in Casper, WY. Being the hub of the northern Rocky Mountains petroleum industry, Casper is an ideal location for such a facility. All core is available for public viewing and in most cases, testing. There are currently about 1000 ft of core readily available to the public. Another roughly 2000 ft of core are archived in on-site shipping containers, also available to the public. All producing zones at Naval Petroleum Reserve Three (NPR-3, Teapot Dome Field), Natrona Co., WY are represented by core at the repository. Upper Cretaceous rocks include the Shannon Sandstone Member, Niobrara Shale Formation, and Frontier Formation (including the First, Second, and Third Wall Creek Sandstone Members). Lower Cretaceous rocks include the Muddy Sandstone Member, Dakota Sandstone (Fall River) member, and Lakota Conglomerate Member. Pennsylvanian/Permian rocks include the Tensleep Formation. Core can be viewed in a new layout facility at Omni. Both natural light and UV light are available in the viewing room. Core photography is available in natural and UV light. Thin sections and core plugs can be sampled from core with RMOTC's permission. Conventional core analysis is available on site. Whole core can be slabbed if required, again with permission from RMOTC. Well history files will be available for each well represented by core in the public area. A working area allows a comfortable environment to examine well file documents. Other NPR-3 cores will be placed in the repository as they become available from future drilling projects.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90076©2008 AAPG Pacific Section, Bakersfield, California