Abstract: Bowman Road Gas Pool, A Subtle Structural Trap in the French Camp Gas Field, San Joaquin County, California

CRESSY, FRANK B.

The Bowman Road pool is an Upper Cretaceous Lathrop gas discovery drilled in September, 1994 by Nahama and Weagant Energy Company. It is located in the northernmost San Joaquin Valley, approximately five miles southwest of the city of Stockton. The field, currently operated by Enron Oil and Gas Company, lies on the upthrown side of the Stockton fault one mile east of the large Lathrop gas field which has produced in excess of 350 Bcf from Lathrop sandstones. The Bowman Road discovery was based on regional studies and detailed subsurface geology tied to a one-half mile grid of CDP seismic. It targeted stacked Lathrop sandstones in a small faulted anticlinal closure.

The exploration concept was a deeper pool test of the western structure of the French Camp gas field. This faulted, south-plunging anticline had produced gas from the Second Starkey sandstone and it was believed that deeper Lathrop sandstones had not been tested at a crestal position because of offset of the structural axis with depth. The crestal migration is caused by westward thinning of the section overlying prospective Lathrop sandstones. Nearly 500 feet of regional westward thinning occurs parallel to the Starkey shelf edge because of thicker Starkey shelf sand deposition to the east and greater compaction of coeval slope shale to the west.

The interpretation proved to be correct and the well was completed from selected intervals between 7532 ft and 7678 ft, testing at a rate of 3200 Mcf/day of 733 Btu gas on a 16/64 inch choke. Production sales began in January, 1996 and development of the field is currently underway.

Search and Discovery Article #90945©1997 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Bakersfield, California