ABSTRACT: Controls on the Distribution of Oil and Gas, Mesozoic and Cenzoic of Mississippi
MEYLAN, MAURICE A.
Through 1995, oil and gas had been produced from 873 fields in Mississippi, cumulative production being 2169 MMBBLS oil and 7826 BCF gas. Less than 5 percent, mostly gas, came from the 69 Paleozoic fields in the Black Warrior Basin of northeastern Mississippi. The other 804 fields occur in central and southern Mississippi, and produced from Norphlet (Upper Jurassic) up through Frio (Oligocene) rocks; of these 804 fields, 324 have produced at least 0.5 MMBBLS oil and/or 3 BCF gas. The areal and stratigraphic distribution of hydrocarbons from these 324 fields reveal the principal controls on production.
Most of the oil and gas is located in two general settings: (1) structural traps updip from the Perry Basin, a pronounced low in the eastern Mississippi Salt Basin, or (2) in combination stratigraphic-structural traps on the Adams County High of southwestern Mississippi. Hydrocarbons from Smackover and possibly younger source rocks in the Perry Basin may have migrated updip along graben faulting related to salt ridges that extend into the basin. North of the Perry Basin, production is mainly Smackover, Cotton Valley, Sligo, Rodessa, and Eutaw oil. West and northwest of the Perry Basin, on a structural shelf that separates it from the Mississippi Embayment part of the salt basin, and at depths deeper than on the north side of the Perry Basin, pay is mainly gas from the Hosston, Sligo, Rodessa, and Paluxy. Hydrocarbons on the Adams County High (and some of the pay in structures within the southern part of the salt basin) likely migrated updip from source rocks in Louisiana; production is mainly Lower Tuscaloosa oil and gas and Wilcox oil.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90941©1997 GCAGS 47th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana