--> In-Place Oil Shale Resources in the Saline Mineral and Saline-Leached Intervals, Piceance Basin, Colorado
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2014 Rocky Mountain Section AAPG Annual Meeting

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In-Place Previous HitOilNext Hit Previous HitShaleNext Hit Resources in the Saline Mineral and Saline-Leached Intervals, Piceance Basin, Colorado

Abstract

The Eocene Green River Formation of the Piceance Basin in western Colorado contains most of the high-quality Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit resource in the western United States. According to a recent analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey of the potentially recoverable resource as a function of Previous HitoilNext Hit-Previous HitshaleNext Hit grade, the basin contains about 920 and 352 billion barrels of potential Previous HitoilNext Hit resource using Previous HitoilNext Hit-yield cutoffs of 15- and 25-gallons per ton (GPT), respectively. Much of this rich Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit is associated with the saline minerals nahcolite and halite or intervals in which these minerals have been leached by groundwater. This impacts the potential for Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit resource extraction as nahcolite must be co-produced or preserved. Furthermore, the presence of vugs and breccias in the leached zones can effect groundwater movement and potentially affect the implementation of in-situ Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit extraction technologies. To facilitate the assessment of potentially recoverable resources associated with the major mineral facies of the Piceance Basin, Previous HitoilNext Hit-Previous HitshaleNext Hit zones were delineated into mineralogical-stratigraphic intervals, specifically: (1) the illitic zone, which predates the deposition of saline minerals; (2) the saline zone; (3) the leached zone; and (4) other overlying Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit zones. The Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit resources in each interval were further sorted according to Previous HitoilNext Hit-Previous HitshaleNext Hit grade. Of the 352 billion barrels of potentially recoverable Previous HitoilNext Hit resources associated with high-grade (≥ 25-GPT) Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit, the amounts present in the illitic, saline and leached intervals were 11%, 33% and 54%, respectively. Very little high-grade Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit was associated with the overlying Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleNext Hit zones. These results highlight the importance of investigating the association between saline minerals and organic richness in the Piceance Basin Previous HitoilNext Hit Previous HitshaleTop, both to understand the geological setting and to facilitate resource development.