--> Digital Regional Investigation of the Wilcox Group of Northern Louisiana: Application to Coalbed Natural Gas Evaluation, Richard W. Ball and Gary L. Kinsland, #90093 (2009)

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Digital Regional Investigation 

of the Wilcox Group of Northern Louisiana: 

 Application to Coalbed Natural Gas Evaluation

 

 

Richard W. Ball1 and Gary L. Kinsland2

 

1Chevron, 11111 S. Wilcrest Dr., Houston, Texas  77099

 

2Department of Geology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette,

P.O. Box 44530, Lafayette, Louisiana  70504

 

   

ABSTRACT

 

Coal bed natural gas (CBNG) is natural gas produced from coal beds or coal seams.  Commercial production of CBNG has been achieved from coal as thin as 3 ft (0.9 m) to beds that measure greater than 90 ft (27 m).  Productive CBNG operations have been established in many domestic (e.g., San Juan, Powder River) and international (e.g., Qinshui, Bowen) basins.  Gulf Coast CBNG gas in place estimates range up to 8 TCF (trillion cubic ft), making the region an attractive candidate for exploration.  This work focuses on regional structure, stratigraphy, a potential basement influence model, and regional coal accumulation locations of the Wilcox Group in northern Louisiana.  After constructing and evaluating digital maps from digitized well log curves from the lower Wilcox Group  the following observations were made:  (1) higher net coal values tend to occur where the sand percentage is low, (2) areas within intervals that contain high net coal values typically persist vertically throughout the lower Wilcox intervals; (3) high sand  percent values also persist vertically; (4) large gross thickness values in western central Louisiana are related to a gravity low; (5) strong evidence exists that underlying basement structure controls fluvial fairways and coal accumulations; and (6) the majority of the coals in the northern Louisiana coal basin were deposited in a fluvial, rather than coastal plain or backshore near-marine setting. 

 

 

Ball, R. W., and G. L. Kinsland, 2009, Digital regional investigation of the Wilcox Group of northern Louisiana:  Application to coalbed natural gas evaluation:  Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 59, p. 61-75.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90093 © 2009 GCAGS 59th Annual Meeting, Shreveport, Louisiana