ABSTRACT: Exploration and
Production Analog
for Lower Cretaceous Hosston Sandstone Reservoirs
MITCHELL-TAPPING, HUGH J.
The hydrocarbon productive
Bassfield field, Mississippi, is an excellent analog
for Lower Cretaceous
Hosston exploration and production. This field is a simple anticline overlying
a deep-seated salt structure. Production is from the lower portions of
two fluvial channel sandstone intervals, the Harper and Booth, within the
Hosston Formation. Flow rates are not related to structural position but
vary in different parts of the field due to changes in the sandstone depositional
facies. The clayey sandstones have been deposited in meandering river channel
network. Three major reservoir rock types were differentiated using SEM,
x-ray, and petrology. Porosity and permeability reduction was due to the
presence of illite and kaolinite, primary dolomite cement, and secondary
quartz cementation and pressure solution of the grains. Early hydrocarbon
migration into the reservoirs has prevented further cementation. The petrological
and petrophysical analysis also determined that a salt-based or oil-based
drilling mud would lessen the damaging effects of migration and swelling
on the borehole by the various clay types in the reservoir interval. Hydraulic
fracture stimulation has proven to have had a considerable positive effect
on production rates of the sandstones. By studying the electric logs and
cores of this field, explorationists will have a better understanding of
why production occurs and where other fields may be found.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90941©1997 GCAGS 47th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana