Generation and Migration of Petroleum form the Devonian-Mississippian Woodford Shale in the Anadarko Basin based on 4D Petroleum System Modeling.

Dr. Debra K. Higley
USGS, Lakewood, CO

Anadarko is the deepest basin in the onshore United States, with a broad shallow shelf in the Colorado and Kansas portions that deepens sharply toward the south bounding Wichita Mountain and Amarillo uplifts in Oklahoma and Texas. The Devonian-Mississippian Woodford Shale is an important petroleum source and reservoir rock that is primarily located in the deep basin of Oklahoma and Texas. Thermal maturities range from marginally mature for oil to overmature for gas generation at petroleum productive depths of more than 5,000 ft to 20,000 ft. A broad range in burial depths allowed for a long period of hydrocarbon generation that started about 330 Ma and ended after the Laramide orogeny, after about 50 Ma, based on 1D and 4D petroleum-system modeling. Associated peak hydrocarbon generation was from about 310 to 220 Ma. Modeled onset of oil generation was from as shallow a burial depth as about 6,000 ft based on Woodford Shale hydrous pyrolysis transformation ratios > 0.1% and vitrinite reflectance of 0.6% and greater. Oil generation began near the basin axis, north of the Wichita Mountain and Amarillo uplifts, and migration through time was radially outward and northward.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90152©2012 AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Fort Worth, Texas, 19-22 May 2012