--> Geology and drilling results from two of the most recently discovered oil and gas fields in Nevada, Noble's Humboldt and Huntington oil and gas fields in Elko County, Nevada.

AAPG Pacific Section and Rocky Mountain Section Joint Meeting

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Geology and drilling results from two of the most recently discovered oil and gas fields in Nevada, Noble's Humboldt and Huntington oil and gas fields in Elko County, Nevada.

Abstract

Between September of 2013 and November of 2014 Noble drilled 4 wells in the Elko Basin and completed two of the wells as producing oil wells in the lower Tertiary Elko Formation. The wells are currently shut in after short production testing. The Humboldt M2C-M2-21B was perforated between 7967′ and 8142′ in the Elko shale and produced a total of 2782 bbls of oil over a period of 145 days. The Huntington K1L-1V well was tested in 2015 and has produced a total of 3,833 barrels of oil from the Elko shale between 8924′ and 9290′. The areal extent of the ancestral Lower Tertiary Elko basin is restricted primarily to Elko County, Nevada, and encompasses an area of nearly 8,000 square miles. The Elko oil shale was first recognized by R.M. Catlin in 1875. Ultimately, an oil retort was built and operated from 1917 to 1924 producing approximately 12,000 barrels of oil. Estimates of the in-place shale-oil resources are approximately 600 million barrels in the 7 square mile outcrop area surrounding the Catlin Retort (Moore and others 1983). The average pyrolitic oil yield of organic rich sections in the Elko shale are 25.4 gallons per ton and leaner shales yield 5 gallons per ton (Moore 1983, Pool and Claypool 1984, Solomon 1992). Serious exploration efforts to develop the Elko shale began in 1974 by Fillon Exploration in 1974. It was compared as an analog to producing oil fields in the Green River Basin of Utah and the Sheep Pass Basin in Nevada. However, this earlier exploration activity focused on conventional traps; whereas, Noble Energy used Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) to develop the resource.