Woodford Shale in the Marietta Basin (North Texas)

Abstract

The Woodford Shale is an organic-rich siliceous shale deposited during the Late Devonian and Early Mississippian in Oklahoma and Texas; it is considered one of the most important unconventional shale resources in the United States. The purpose of this study was to describe and characterize a cored Woodford Shale interval from a well in the Marietta Basin in North Texas and compare it to correlative outcrop stratigraphic sections in the Criner Hills in South Central Oklahoma.

This Marietta Basin core is composed mainly by five lithofacies: 1) Siliceous Mudstone, 2) Chert, 3) Siliceous Shale, 4) Argillaceous Mudstone, and 5) Green Mudstone. Lithofacies were characterized in hand samples and thin sections by the use of Petrographic Microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and Leebs Rebound Hardness (RH). These methods combined with a Core Spectral Gamma Ray log assisted in the generation of a sequence stratigraphic framework and the interpretation of a depositional model for this Woodford Shale section.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90292 © 2017 AAPG Southwest Section, Midland, Texas, April 29 - May 2, 2017