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AAPG AnnualConvention 2013
Pittsburgh, PA
The dominantly carbonate Uteland Butte Member of the lower Green River Formation has historically been a secondary oil target of wells primarily tapping shallower overlying reservoirs and deeper fluvial-lacustrine sandstone units in the western Uinta Basin, Utah. Recently, companies have targeted the relatively thin porous carbonate beds of the Uteland Butte via horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The Uteland Butte Member records the first major transgression of Eocene Lake Uinta after the deposition of the fluvial Colton Forma-tion. The Uteland Butte ranges in thickness from less than 60 ft to more than 200 ft and consists of limestone, dolomite, organic-rich calcar-eous mudstone, siltstone, and rare sandstone. The dolomite, the new horizontal drilling target, often has more than 20% porosity, but is so finely crystalline that the permeability is very low (single mD or less). Currently, low-volume conventional production occurs in the thin proximal Uteland Butte sandstone beds (Uteland Butte field) in the south-central part of the basin, and the distal carbonates in the north-western part of the basin (Greater Monument Butte field). Several companies have had recent success targeting the Uteland Butte with horizontal wells in both the central, normally pressured, part of the basin near Greater Monument Butte field and farther north in the overpressured zone in western Altamont field. Initial production from these wells averages 500-1500 BOE per day from horizontal legs up to 4000 ft in length. Core from the productive carbonate zone was obtained from the Bill Barrett 14-3-45 BTR well (southwestern Altamont field) and is displayed with this poster. The horizontal drill-ing objective, as analyzed in the core, is a 5-ft interval of fractured dolomite, with porosities between 14 and 26%, interbedded with organic-rich limestone. TOC values for the 60 ft of recovered core range between 2 and 5%, while Ro values range between 0.7 and 1.1, in-dicating these rocks are self-sourcing. A refined reservoir characterization study of the Uteland Butte Member using newly acquired core, cuttings, and geophysical logs will help determine new areas within the basin having potential for unconventional oil recovery and help maximize ultimate recovery.
ABSTRACTABSTRACT
Project funded by: U.S. Department of Energy - National Energy Technology Laboratory and Utah Geological Survey
Michael D. Vanden Berg, Craig D. Morgan, Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr., and Peter Nielsen Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, Utah
The Uteland Butte Member of the Eocene Green River Formation: An Emerging Unconventional Carbonate Tight Oil Play in the Uinta Basin, Utah
Panel 1
The overall goal of our three-year DOE-funded project, which commenced December 2012, is to provide reservoir-specific geological and engineer-ing analyses of the emerging Green River Formation (GRF) tight oil plays in the Uinta Basin, Utah. Specific goals are as follows:
1) Characterize geologic, geochemical, and geomechanical rock properties of GRF horizontal targets by compiling data and by analyzing available cores, cuttings, and well logs.
2) Describe outcrop reservoir analogs of GRF plays and compare them to subsurface data.
3) Map major regional trends for targeted intervals and identify “sweet spots” that have the greatest oil production potential.
4) Determine optimal well completion design for GRF horizontal plays (not included on this poster).
PROJECT GOALSPROJECT GOALS
BACKGROUNDBACKGROUND The Uinta Basin is a topographic and structural trough encompassing an area of more than 9300 square miles (14,900 km2) in northeast Utah. The basin is sharply asymmetric, with a steep north flank bounded by the east-west trending Uinta Mountains and a gently dipping south flank. The Uinta Basin formed in the Late Cretaceous Maastrichtian time, creating a large area of internal drainage, which was filled by ancestral Lake Uinta during the Paleocene and Eocene. Deposition in and around Lake Uinta consisted of open- to marginal-lacustrine sediments that make up the Green River Formation (GRF). Alluvial red-bed deposits that are laterally equivalent to, and intertongue with, the GRF make up the Colton (Wasatch) Formation. The southern shore of Lake Uinta was often very broad and flat, which allowed large transgressive and regressive shifts in the shoreline in response to climatic and tectonic-induced rise and fall of the lake. The cyclic nature of the GRF deposition in the southwest Uinta Basin resulted in numerous stacked deltaic deposits. Distributary-mouth bars, distributary channels, and nearshore bars are the primary producing sandstone reservoirs in the area. Recently, companies have targeted the thinner carbonate layers, such as the Uteland Butte Member, as horizontal drilling targets.
Project website: http://geology.utah.gov/emp/shale_oilProject website: http://geology.utah.gov/emp/shale_oil
UTELAND BUTTE PLAY MAPUTELAND BUTTE PLAY MAP
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UINTAH CO.
CARBON CO.
County boundary
Ü
0 5 10Miles
Uteland Butte Mbr. core)
Black shale core(open circle = possible)(
Parachute Creek Mbr. core(R-8, Mahogany, R-5, and/or R-4)*
Lower GRF core - possibly Blackshale or Uteland Butte Mbr._
Oil field
Gas field
Altamont/Bluebell
Natural ButtesCore housed atUGS / USGS
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Berry/LINN!
Bill Barrett!
Newfield!
EP Energy!
Anadarko!
QEP!
Petroglyph!
APD horizontal well3!
Cross section well (see panel 2)D
EXPLANATION
Uinta Basin ^(
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Isopressure lines1
0.5 psi/ft
0.6 psi/ft
0.7 psi/ft
0.8 psi/ft
DUCHESNE CO.
MonumentButte
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Active horizontal well in GRF3
surface = colored circle, bottom hole = gray open circle
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Newfield - Central basin over-pressured Uteland Butte play
Newfield - Monument ButteUteland Butte play
QEP - Uteland Butte play
QEP - G1 lime play*
QEP - MS8 play*
Anadarko - Uteland Butte play
Bill BarrettUteland Butte play Petroglyph -
Uteland Butte play
EP EnergyProposed GRF horizontal play
DevonProposed GRF horizontal play
1From Dubiel, 20032From Hintze and others, 20003DOGM, 2013*Regional carbonate bed in the lower GRF
43047357709-23-24-36
4304730229CWU 30-224304752584
NBU 921-22M4304732227Fed 7-24B
4304735932Fed 1G-7-10-18
4301333485Big Wash 61-16GR
4301333827GD 1G-34-9-15
4301332894Ute Tribal 2-30D-54
4301332720Ute Tribal 11-8-55
430133411314-1-46
A
A’
4304731505Island Unit 16
Top of GRF outcrop2
Base of GRF outcrop2
Berry/LINN - Uteland Butte play
DUCHESNEFM.
UINTAFM.
‘transitionbeds’
‘saline facies’&
upper mbr.
middle &lower mbrs.
COLTONFM.
GREEN RIVERFM.
FLAGSTAFFLS
NORTH HORNFM
CRETACEOUSFORMATIONSFrom Keighley
and others (2002). Based
on map of Witkind (1995)
STRATIGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE -
THIS STUDY modified from
Keighley and others (2002).
Radiogenic dates from 1Remy (1992),
2Smith and others (2008)
‘SALINE FACIES’OF THE
GREEN RIVER FORMATION
54 ma1
CARBONATEMARKER UNIT
COLTON TONGUE
LOW
ER
GR
EE
NR
IVE
R F
MU
PP
ER
GR
EE
NR
IVE
R F
M
UTELAND BUTTELIMESTONE
COLTONFORMATION
SUNNYSIDE DELTA INTERVAL
TRANSITIONAL INTERVALC MARKER
D MARKER
?PALEOCENE-EOCENE
BOUNDARY (55.8 Ma)?
Cashion (1967)modified from
Morgan and others (2003)
Tgde
Twz
LOW
ER
GR
EE
NR
IVE
R F
MM
IDD
LE G
RE
EN
RIV
ER
FM
UP
PE
R G
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RIV
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FM
Tgdf
MAHOGANY OIL SHALE
DOUGLAS CREEK MEMBER
(tongue A Tgda)
RENEGADE TONGUE
WASATCH (Twx)
HORSEBENCH SANDSTONE
49.3 ma2
48.7 ma2
47.3 ma2
CURLY TUFF
WAVY TUFF
BLIND CANYON TUFF
NINE MILE CANYON/GATE CANYON
OUTCROP
PARACHUTE CREEK MEMBER
EVACUATION CREEK MEMBER
EAST
Morgan and others (2003)
CASTLE PEAK RESERVOIR
LOW
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GR
EE
NR
IVE
R F
MM
IDD
LE G
RE
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RIV
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FM
UTELAND BUTTERESERVOIR
UPPERDOUGLAS CREEK
RESERVOIR
LOWER DOUGLAS CREEK
RESERVOIR
SUBSURFACECORRELATION
D MARKER
MAHOGANY OIL SHALE
C MARKER
S1 MARKER
GARDEN GULCH
RESERVOIR
S2 MARKER
UG
RF
MID
DLE
GR
EE
N R
IVE
R F
M
GENERALIZEDSTRATIGRAPHYS. UINTA BASIN
OIL SHALE ZONESVanden Berg (2008)
PA
RA
CH
UT
E C
RE
EK
MB
R.
L4
R3
R5 L5
R6 B-GROOVE MAHOGANY A-GROOVE
R8
‘SALINE ZONE’
R4 L3
R2 L2
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BASIN CENTER
DO
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LAS
CR
K. M
BR
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MAHOGANY OIL SHALE
EOC
ENE
PALE
OC
ENE
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Uinta Basin Stratigraphy
The stratigraphic nomenclature used to describe the Green River Formation in the Uinta Basin is as diverse as the rocks themselves. The nomenclature is based on facies, which are often bounded by subtle and interfingering relationships that are difficult to carry with confidence and great distance within the basin. Above are just a few of the different naming conven-tions from different researchers.
Vernal
Price
GrandJunction
Rifle
RockSprings
Big Piney
Evanston GRE
EN R
IVER
BA
SIN
WASHAKIEBASIN
UINTABASIN PICEANCE
BASIN
Utah
Colorado
Wyoming
10 0 10 20 30
Miles
Dou
glas
Cre
ekAr
ch
Uinta Mountain Uplift
Lake Uinta
Lake Gosiute
Rock
Spr
ings
Upl
ift
San Rafael Uplift Uncompahgre Uplift
Conceptual map of ancient Lake Uinta, which coverd the present day Uinta and Piceance Basins, and ancient Lake Gosiute, which covered the Green River and Washakie Basins.
Uinta Basin Geology and Green River FormationUinta Basin Geology and Green River Formation
The Uteland Butte reservoir is the first major transgression of the lake after deposition of the fluvial Colton (Wasatch) Formation. The Uteland Butte ranges in thickness from less than 60 feet to more than 200 feet in the southwest Uinta Basin. The Uteland Butte is equivalent to the first lacus-trine phase of Bradley (1931), black shale facies of Picard (1955), lower black shale facies of Abbott (1957), basal limestone facies of Little (1988) and Colbern and others (1985), the Uteland Butte limestone of Osmond (1992), and the basal limestone member of Crouch and others (2000). The Uteland Butte consists of limestone, dolostone, calcareous mud-stone and siltstone, and rare sandstone. Most of the limestone beds are os-tracodal grain-supported or mud-supported grainstone, packstone, or wackestone. Grainstone is more common near the shallow shoreline of the lake, whereas deeper distal deposits are commonly argillaceous limestone. A cryptocrystalline, dolomitized, compacted wackestone with ostracods has been found near the top of the Uteland Butte in some core. The dolomite often has more than 20 percent porosity, but is so finely crystalline that the permeability is low (single millidarcy or less). The Uteland Butte reservoir was deposited during a rapid and extensive lake-level rise. The Uteland Butte is distinctive in the abundance of carbon-ate and the lack of sandstone, which could have been caused by one or both of the following situations: (1) the rapid lake-level rise caused siliciclastic sediments to be deposited in the proximal alluvial channels, or (2) the main inflow into the lake was far from the southwest Uinta Basin area, perhaps flowing into the southern arm of the lake south and west of the San Rafael uplift. The Uteland Butte reservoir is oil productive throughout most of the southwest Uinta Basin. The Uteland Butte was a secondary objective in most vertical wells and was usually perforated along with beds in the Castle Peak, lower Douglas Creek, and upper Douglas Creek reservoirs. The cryptocrystalline dolomitic wackestone has only recently been ex-tensively explored. This bed, widely distributed throughout the central and southern Uinta Basin, has become a recent target for extensive horizontal drilling, with limited success in the southern part of the basin, but more suc-cess in the over-pressured central basin area.
Uteland Butte MemberUteland Butte Member
Simplified north-south schematic cross section of the Uinta Basin in Duchesne County showing the northward dip of the beds and the relative depths of the major oil fields. The Uteland Butte is the basal member of the Green River Formation and pinches out to the north, towards the deeper basin facies. Modi-fied from Newfield, 2011.
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
Dep
th in
Fee
t
NORTH SOUTH
Duchesne River
Uinta
Green River
Colton / Wasatch
Mahogany Bed
Carbonate Marker Bed
Uteland Butte{Carbonate Marker Unit
Black Shale facies
Castle Peak
Altamont / Bluebell Central Basin Monument Butte
Green River sand lenses
Colton tongue
Near NineMile Canyon
Wasatch/Colton Fm.
Colton Tongue
Uteland Butte
Carbonate Marker Bed
Uteland Butte
Uteland Butte Outcrop Photos from Nine Mile CanyonUteland Butte Outcrop Photos from Nine Mile Canyon
Abbott, W.O., 1957, Tertiary of the Uinta Basin, in Seal, O.G., editor, Guidebook to the geology of the Uinta Basin: Inter- mountain Association of Petroleum Geologists Eighth Annual Field Conference, p. 102-109.Bradley, W.H., 1931, Origin and microfossils of the oil shale of the Green River Formation of Colorado and Utah: U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 168, 56 p.Cashion, W.B., 1967, Geology and fuel resources of the Green River Formation, southeastern Uinta Basin, Utah and Colo- rado: U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 548, 48 p.Colburn, J.A., Bereskin, S.R., McGinley, D.C., and Schiller, D.M., 1985, Lower Green River Formation in the Pleasant Valley producing area, Duchesne and Uintah Counties, Utah, in Picard, M.D., editor, Geology and energy resources, Uinta Basin, Utah: Utah Geological Association Publication 12, p. 177-186.Crouch, B.W., Hackney, M.L., and Johnson, B.J., 2000, Sequence stratigraphy and reservoir character of lacustrine carbon- ates in the basal limestone member - lower Green River Formation (Eocene), Duchesne and Antelope Creek fields, Duchesne Co., Utah [abs.]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention Program with Abstracts, p. A34.DOGM (Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining), 2013, Data Research Center – Well Data: Online, oilgas.ogm.utah.gov/ Data_Center/DataCenter.cfm, accessed March 2013.Dubiel, R.F., 2003, Geology, depositional models, and oil and gas assessment of the Green River total petroleum system, Uinta-Piceance Province, eastern Utah and western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-B, 41 p.Hintze, L.F., Willis, G.C., Laes, D.Y.M., Sprinkel, D.A., and Brown, K.D., 2000, Digital geologic map of Utah: Utah Geo- logical Survey M-179.
REFERENCESREFERENCES Keighley, D., Flint, S., Howell, J., Anderson, D., Collins, S., Moscariello, A., and Stone, G., 2002, Surface and subsurface correlation of the Green River Formation in central Nine Mile Canyon, SW Uinta Basin, Carbon and Duchesne Coun- ties, east-central Utah: Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 02-1.Little, T.M., 1988, Depositional environments, petrology, and diagenesis of the basal limestone facies, Green River Forma- tion (Eocene), Uinta Basin, Utah: Salt Lake City, University of Utah, M.S. thesis, 154 p.Morgan, C.D., Chidsey, T.C., Jr, McClure, K.P., Bereskin, S.R., and Deo, M.D., 2003, Reservoir characterization of the Lower Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah: Utah Geological Survey 411, 1–140 p.Newfield, 2011, Uinta Basin / Greater Monument Butte area update: Online, www.newfld.com/assets/pdf/uintaupdate.pdf, accessed March 2013.Osmond, J.C., 1992, Greater Natural Buttes gas field, Uintah County, Utah, in Fouch, T.D., Nuccio, V.F., and Chidsey, T.C., Jr., editors, Hydrocarbon and mineral resources of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: Utah Geological Association Publication 20, p. 143-163.Picard, M.D., 1955, Subsurface stratigraphy and lithology of the Green River Formation in Uinta Basin, Utah: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 39, no. 1, p. 75-102.Remy, R.R., 1992, Stratigraphy of the Eocene part of the Green River Formation in the south-central part of the Uinta Basin, Utah: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1787-BB, 79 p.Smith, M.E., Carroll, A.R., and Singer, B.S., 2008, Synoptic reconstruction of a major ancient lake system: Eocene Green River Formation, western United States: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 120, no. 1-2, p. 54–84.Vanden Berg, M., 2008, Basin-wide evaluation of the uppermost Green River Formation's oil-shale resource, Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: Utah Geological Survey Special Study 128.Witkind, I.J., 1995, Geologic map of the Price 1° x 2° quadrangle, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investiga- tions Series, Map I-2462.
Interbeded shales, limestones, and dolomites (light tan layers)
Bivalves and gastropods
Interbeded shales, limestones, and dolomites (light tan layers)
Cores included on Panel 3
Available cores
Note: core hole symbols filled with colorto denote company ownership
Active/proposed horz. wells
