--> ABSTRACT: Surface Expression of Hydrocarbon Production Patterns in the Southern Williston Basin, USA, by G. W. Shurr; #91021 (2010)

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Surface Expression of Hydrocarbon Production Patterns in the Southern Williston Basin, USA

SHURR, GEORGE W

Hydrocarbon reservoirs on the southern margin of the Williston Basin have a significant structural component. The structural features that influence production patterns have surface expressions visible on Landsat images, high altitude aerial photographs, topographic and geologic maps, and outcrop joint measurements. Assemblages of geologic structures conform with strike-slip displacements along major lithosphere block boundaries trending northwest and northeast. One of these block boundaries corresponds with Cedar Creek Anticline which produces natural gas from shallow clastic rocks and oil from deeper carbonates. There are, however, more subtle structures marked by surface expressions away from this major anticline.

Natural gas is produced from shallow Cretaceous clastic reservoirs draped over fault blocks. Plevna and Gaslight Fields in Fallon County, MT, have values of initial production (IP) that vary systematically relative to northwest and northeast fault traces. Little Missouri Field in Bowman County, ND, has IP patterns that parallel a northwest anticline axis. West Short Pine Hills and Cady Creek Fields in Harding County, SD, have patterns of cumulative production and IP that are elongate north-south. Petroleum produced from carbonate reservoirs in the Red River Formation (Ordovician) has patterns that also correlate with surface features. Recent development drilling in Bowman County, ND, documents northwest and northeast patterns of IP values. Older production in Buffalo Field in Harding County, SD, has east-west and north-south trends of IP and oil-water ratios. Production patterns in all five gas fields and in the two areas of petroleum production have surface signatures in stream patterns and linear features on Landsat images and aerial photographs.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91021©1997 AAPG Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas.