Abstract: Exploitation Utilizing 3D Seismic in the Red Oak Gas Field of the Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma, USA

Patrick Rutty, Jill Schlaefer, Antonio Vizurraga

Red Oak field, located in the Arkoma basin of Eastern Oklahoma, produces 200 Mmcfd of gas under pressure depletion drive with 2.6 TCF of gas recoverable. Structurally, the field occupied a position along the northern flank of the southward collapsing shear-margin formed during the Ouachita Orogeny. The basin flank is characterized by rapid subsidence and deposition of over 20,000 feet (6000 m) of shallow to deep marine shale and stacked sandstone in Atokan time (mid-late Carboniferous). This sequence culminates with a shoaling upward cycle and is structurally deformed by earliest Desmoinesian thrusting (280 - 265 Mya).

Interpretation from a 18 mi² (47km²) 3-D seismic survey was integrated with available well control and litho-facies mapping defining detailed structural irregularities and providing new drillsites while reducing economic risk. Resolution of data from the 3D seismic survey varied greatly. The one failed aspect of the original 3D survey design was to precisely map Red Oak sandstone. However, the survey was robust enough to provide excellent shallow and deep data, leading to identification of additional reservoir targets and multiple drilling proposals.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90957©1995 AAPG Mid-Continent Section Meeting, Tulsa, Oklahoma