Identifying Underdeveloped Oil and Gas Resources on the West Flank of the Appalachian Basin on the Nashville and Jessamine Domes in Tennessee and Kentucky Using GIS Databases

Abstract

Structural components of oil and gas plays that have been productive in KY can be used to identify potential plays in TN. Given that greater than 150,000 wells have been drilled in KY, the oil and gas producing formations of KY have been extensively explored. Many of these formations extend into TN; however, only around 16,000 wells have been drilled, partially due to the lack of accessible data. Here we attempt to identify potential plays in less-explored areas of TN where equivalent areas in KY have been successfully exploited. Available surface and subsurface geologic data in TN and KY were compiled from a variety of sources. Subsurface data were collected from oil and gas well logs, mineral prospect holes, mineral resource summary reports, and the TN and KY oil and gas databases. Surface data were compiled from a digital database of published and unpublished 1:24,000 geologic maps of TN and KY. An automated process was implemented using ArcMap™ and Python scripting to extract surface formation contact elevations, which permitted rapid data collection across both the Nashville and Jessamine domes. Sequences of primary interest are the lower Mississippian Fort Payne Fm, Devonian black shales (Chattanooga, New Albany, and Ohio), and Middle Ordovician Trenton and Black River Groups.

The Nashville and Jessamine domes in TN and KY are major regional structures located between the Illinois basin to the west and the Appalachian basin to the east. The two domes have been interpreted as part of a peripheral bulge formed as North American crust was loaded by accreted terranes or continent-continent collision farther east. These structures display a variety of second-and third-order folds and small faults, many of which define potential oil and gas traps. The pre-Chattanooga unconformity was arched during the Alleghanian orogeny; post-Early Silurian-pre-Chattanooga unconformity folding and faulting deformed the two domes. We have used geodatabases to subtract the Alleghanian deformation to permit analysis of residual mid-Paleozoic structures. A cross-check of surface and subsurface data was facilitated by recently acquired LiDAR data. Surface and subsurface data were combined to produce detailed structure contour maps for the surfaces of interest. This large dataset permits resolution of second-and third-order structures on and between both domes to define potentially underexplored plays.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90323 ©2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 20-23, 2018