--> New Drilling Results Based on 3-D Seismic Interpretation in the Red Wing Creek Meteorite Impact Field, Williston Basin, Western North Dakota

AAPG ACE 2018

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New Drilling Results Based on 3-D Seismic Interpretation in the Red Wing Creek Meteorite Impact Field, Williston Basin, Western North Dakota

Abstract

The Red Wing Creek Field in the Williston Basin in western North Dakota is one of a few well-known petroleum fields in the world to produce from a structure associated with a meteorite impact. Interpretation of a 3D depth-migrated data cube defined the basic structure of the feature and future development targets. The crater is 9.1 km in diameter and has three unique structural zones. First, the central uplift complex has a maximum diameter of 5.1 km, and consists of an uplifted central core, composed entirely of strata of the Mississippian Madison Group, and a flanking inner rim. Nearly all of the field’s production is from the central core, which has extensive structural repetition. The central core is surrounded by an annular rim (1.7 km wide), which is structurally thickened by imbricate thrusts that dip towards the central core. This rim comprises eight distinct radial sectors, segmented by nine high-angle, reverse faults.

The second structural zone is a depressed annular trough with a maximum diameter of 1.5 km; its inner limit is bounded by antithetic normal faults and its outer limit by concentrically linked normal faults that dip toward the central part of the crater. This group of faults marks the edge of the third zone, the outer rim. The outer rim is slightly uplifted, relatively undisturbed, and its strata dip at a maximum angle of 8° away from the central crater.

Four initial targets were identified and drilled in the Mission Canyon Formation—three wells along the eastern outer rim, and one well in the inner rim. Each of the three outer rim horizontal wells were drilled into separate four-way closures—two were producers. These wells did not have fracture-enhanced permeability associated with the impact. The fourth well, drilled in a three-way closure against a fault in the eastern inner rim, was also a producer. Geochemical analyses indicate the outer rim oils are from Type IIS source rocks (Lodgepole), whereas the central core and inner rim oils are primarily from the Bakken Type II source rock with contributions from the Lodgepole.