Speaker: Gary Rice, President GeoFrontiers Corp.
TITLE: Advances in Petroleum Geochemical Exploration
ABSTRACT: The presentation will focus on the Iron Bridge Croton limestone / Tannehill sandstone / Tannehill limestone reservoirs, how geochemical exploration with subsurface geology led to their discovery, and how information from earlier projects contributed to that success. The Iron Bridge Wolfcamp-aged reservoirs trend east to west on a gently dipping eastern shelf of the Midland basin, are stratigraphic in nature, and occur from fluvial–deltaic processes.
Application of subsurface geology, gas hydrocarbon data, and petroleum liquid data are the subject of this presentation. The Iron Bridge fields were discovered using regional subsurface mapping and soil gas and soil liquid surveys collected and analyzed in 2001. The Iron Bridge field was discovered in Jan 2002 and since that time has a combined cumulative production of 1.3 million BO.
The Iron Bridge field discovery has been presented before and it represents one of the more complex areas that surface geochemistry had been called on to unravel. This presentation will focus on the journey of technical developments that led to solutions in many areas using Iron Bridge field as an example.
Croton limestone in South Spur field was produced in October 2000 making it the first limestone production in Dickens Co. Earlier geochemical surveys recognized that the surface gas compositions were different from those over Tannehill sandstone production. Therefore, Tannehill sandstone production was unlikely. In fact, the gas data over South Spur resembled that over Goen limestone in Concho Co. Solutions to distinguish among multiple pay zones in Concho Co., Texas, helped separate and locate different pay zones in both South Spur and Iron Bridge fields.
Liquid hydrocarbon data and lessons learned from nearby Navigator field were used to predict a major fault dissecting the Iron Bridge area. Seepage up this fault matched the composition of Croton limestone gas discovered in South Spur and also suggested that natural fracturing near a fault could be present contributing to permeability in a limestone reservoir.
This bootstrap method of combining exploration programs with research to advance the technology was effective although slow. During this process of using geochem to augment exploration geology, numerous new fields were discovered and new pay zones were established. Exploration success rates improved, especially wildcat success, making exploration profitable again.
Bio: Gary K. Rice is President, of GeoFrontiers Corporation located in Wichita Falls. GeoFrontiers develops and applies geochemical exploration technologies worldwide for petroleum, hydrogen, and helium. Prior company experience includes Texas Instruments, Geophysical Services, Inc., and Halliburton Geophysical. Professional Affiliations include the American Chemical Society, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the North Texas Geological Society. In 2012 Dr. Rice received the Monroe G. Cheney Science Award from the SW Section of the AAPG for outstanding contributions to science.