Organic Petrology and Maturation of the Bakken Formation Essay

deposit is the Marcellus Shale, located in the northeastern part of the US, centering on the state

The most important of these is the Permian Basin. In the latter half of the Paleozoic era, sediments rich in organic matter accumulated here when a shallow sea got cut off from the main oceans and evaporated off, leaving lots of dead critters and evaporites. These sediments eventually got buried and compressed, causing the oil and gas to form "pockets in permeable rock, surrounded by impermeable rocks so that they couldn't escape. There the fluid sits until someone pokes a hole (well) into the area and the contents rush out as the tremendous pressure is released. Other areas of Texas with notable petroleum sources include East Texas's Woodbine Formation (formed in the Late Cretaceous), much of the Gulf Coast and the Gulf itself, and various smaller pockets in South and South Central Texas.

This formation is a very fine grain Mississippian limestone. To test to see if this was the Bangor formation we used HCL and because there was a reaction we know its limestone. This formation could also be described as gray in color as well as an average thickness of 700 feet. We see the Bangor until stop eight, where we see a very different vertical bedding. Also different at stop eight is the outcrop no longer reacts with HCL. From this we gathered that we had moved into the Hartselle formation. In the Hartselle Formation, Mississippian aged sandstones are dominant. This particular stop had a large amount of jointing. After the Hartselle, we figured the Pride Mountain Formation would be next, however at stop nine we see the Maury Formation present. This stop focused on the rock located inside the creek. Because we were unable to go into the creek to get the strike and dips, we once again had to do a projected orientation. Also found on this stop were natural sulfur springs, easy to notice with the smell that it gives off. The Maury formation consist of Mississippian- Silurian aged shale. At the next stop, stop 10, we encounter the Ft. Payne formation. Although this area location was thickly vegetated, we were able to conduct the acid test and saw that the HCL reacts in some places but not all. From this we concluded that this was the cherty limestone of the Ft. Payne formation. The following stop, 12, we went up section and arrived at the Maury Formation once again. At the final stop, location 13, we see Ft. Payne Formation. All of the metamorphism and deformation in the southernmost Appalachians can be related to the movement of the thrust sheets and stacks (Higgins,

After scientists have tested the oil and the rocks, oil companies will begin drilling in the wells and rock samples will be brought to the surface. After the scientists have studied the rock samples from above ground and are convinced that they have found the right type of rock, companies begin drilling production wells. “When the wells first hit the reservoir, some of the oil begins coming to the surface immediately” (“Fossil Energy: How Fossil Fuels Were Formed,” n.d.). However, with today’s technology, oil companies are able to install special equipment to help the oil from spurting hundreds and hundreds of feet from the ground.

This geologic data has shown that the basin contains sedimentary rocks of Late Cambrian to the Tertiary age, and is more than 15,000 feet thick. The depo-center of the Williston Basin started its development during the early Paleozoic era in the northwestern part of North Dakota. The sedimentary rock thickness decreases to less than 10,000 feet in eastern Montana and to less than 5000 feet along the basin margin (Peterson & MacCary, 2009). Carbonate deposition occurred throughout the area during the early to middle Paleozoic era and changed to clastic deposition in the late Paleozoic era. During the Paleozoic era, more than 8000 feet of marine sediments accumulated at the basin center, but the shape of the basin remained the same. The basin depo-center has however shifted slightly over time. The Williston Basin sedimentation in the lower and middle Paleozoic is dominated by carbonates and evaporates, whereas upper Paleozoic and younger rocks are largely siliciclastic with small admixtures of carbonate (Anderson & Gerhard,

The state has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 3.1 percent. Some wonder who could be out of work, given all the “Help Wanted” signs. North Dakota is No. 1 in job growth and No. 1 in income growth. At the heart of this pros¬perity is the Bakken formation, located in the northwestern part of the state. It’s a vast pot of oil. “Bakken,” incidentally, rhymes with “rockin’.” They have a bumper sticker here: “Rockin’ the Bakken.”

Locals refer to this area as the Denver-Julesburg Basin. Greeley sits on Wattenberg Field, a leading oil resource in the region (Ross, 2015). Wattenberg field was discovered in 1970 and was historically a major gas filed. Producing over 4.0 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from roughly 20,000 wells (Bonanza Creek Energy, 2017). Wattenberg field is part of the Niobrara formation. According to the Oil & Gas Monitor, The Niobrara shale reserve, a source of petroleum exploration for over a100 years may have as much as 2 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Due to Colorado's uneven and difficult topography hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," and horizontal drilling are especially advantageous (Ross, 2015).

It has long been known that large amounts of natural gas reside in deep layers of sedimentary rock such as shale. However, this gas could not be extracted until recent years due to previous limitations of technology making it economically unfeasible. This is now possible due to developments in drilling technology that now allow drillers to drill horizontally. Millions of gallons of water and chemicals are then injected at extremely high pressure that fractures the rock surrounding the drill hole, allowing trapped gas to escape. This process is called hydraulic fracturing, but is known colloquially as “fracking.”

The North Dakota oil pipeline, also known as the Bakken pipeline project, is a controversial underground pipeline development in the United States initiated in the year 2014. It is an access pipeline scheme approximated to run over 1,172 miles or 1886 km underground with 30-inch diameter pipeline from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to Patoka in Illinois. The plan of the project is that the construction should be in a somewhat straight line from North Dakota, through South Dakota, Iowa to Illinois, with a completion time estimated to be by the end of the fourth quarter of 2016. The projected budget for the accomplishment of North Dakota oil pipeline is $3.7 billion raised through loans and shareholders’ contributions. Upon its completion, the pipeline will transport over 470,000 barrels every day with a potential to transport in excess of 570,000 barrels daily, which constitutes over 50% of the current crude oil production in Bakken per day (Energy Transfer).

The data and interpretation for this study were based upon a detailed petrographic examination of sixty (60) thin sections prepared from the core samples of the Kreyenhagen and Vedder sands from Mushrush wells 1, 2, and 5 of the Wasco oil field, California, and supplemented by textural and chemical analyses of twelve thin sections obtained using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive x-ray spectrophotometer (EDS). The thin sections were studied to establish the mineralogical, compositional, and textural properties of the Vedder and Kreyenhagen sandstones. The data collected were used to determine the diagenetic paragenesis including porosity development of the Vedder and Kreyenhagen sandstones of the Wasco oil field.

The North Dakota oil pipeline, also known as the Bakken pipeline project, is a controversial underground pipeline development in the United States initiated in the year 2014. It is an access pipeline scheme approximated to run over 1,172 miles or 1886 km underground with 30-inch diameter pipeline from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to Patoka in Illinois. The plan of the project is that the construction should be in a somewhat straight line from North Dakota, through South Dakota, Iowa to Illinois, with a completion time estimated to be by the end of the fourth quarter of 2016. The projected budget for the accomplishment of North Dakota oil pipeline is $3.7 billion raised through loans and shareholders’ contributions. Upon its completion, the pipeline will transport over 470,000 barrels every day with a potential to transport in excess of 570,000 barrels daily, which constitutes over 50% of the current crude oil production in Bakken per day (Energy Transfer).

The Prudhoe Bay field is a deltaic high quality sandstone reservoir that is about 500 feet thick with porosity in the 15-30%. The Permian to Triassic age horizon is the largest producing in the field and is referred to as the Ivishak reservoir. The reservoir is made up of a series of clasitc near-shore marine deposits as well as sandstones and conglomeratic braided-stream deposits (Erikson, Sneider 1997). The reservoir is a structural stratigraphic trap by faulting in the north and south. It is bounded in the north and south by major faulting in the the Barrow Arch and Brooks Range mountains (Figure 5). The east is a truncated Cretaceous horizon that separates it from the Canadian basin. The Prudhoe Bay field is 225 square miles and was discovered in 1968 but because of how remote and undeveloped that area was at the time, exploration did not begin until 1977. Since then it has developed into the largest oil and gas play in North America (Figure 6). Figure 7 highlights the source/reservoir rocks and the types of ongoing and potential

The Banks Group comprises of Hettangian to Sinemurian sediments up to 800 ft thick and forms the lower of the two reservoir sections within the Strathspey Field. The Nansen and Statfjord Formations are sub-divisions within the unit (Knox and Cordey, 1993). The Stratfjord Formation shows a significant increase in net to gross from the conformably underlying Cormorant Formation. The formation consists of medium to coarse grained, fluvial channel sandstones interbedded with mud prone overbank and palaeosol deposits. The Nansen Formation overlies the Statfjord Formation and is composed of clean, tabular sandstone deposited under shallow marine conditions (Maxwell et al., 2003).

It has been broadly recognized that black shales can be hosts of a significant amount of Uranium when compared to other sedimentary rocks (Swanson, 1961). The black shales are very attractive because these typically contain good quantities of organic matter, and therefore, are potential stratigraphic intervals for source of hydrocarbons (Peters and Cassa, 1994). The generated hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) from these shales are derived directly from the thermal cracking of the organic matter, and most of the uranium is attached to or precipitated in the presence of organic matter just before or during the time of deposition of the organic-rich sediment. Peters and Cassa (1994) mainly suggest the division of organic matter into two major types: (1) the sapropelic type derived principally from algae, pollen and spores, resins, and the fatty tissues of animals; (2) the humic type which is derived principally from cellulose and lignin or the woody parts of plants. The sapropelic type of organic matter generally produces significantly a lot of more oil than the humic type (Peters and Cassa, 1994), but despite of this, due to its general resistance to decay, is probably insignificant in the process of concentrating uranium (Swanson, 1961; Leventhal et al., 1986). The humic type of organic matter creates a reducing and acidic environment during its decay, is believed responsible for the precipitation or sorption of the uranium in black

Faults play important roles in oil migration and accumulation. Faults can not only promote oil migration, but also trap and accumulate oil. This paper explores some methods to find out a fault and confirm it is opened or closed. Zhang, C., Xie, X.N., Jiang, T., Liu, X.F. (2005) fou-nd out the properties of faults in the BZ25-1 oilfield of Bohai basin by using some geophysics and geochemistry reflect of formation waters and oils. This paper explains some causes of di-fferent properties of faults. Different kinds of faults, like the Vicksburg growth fault of South Texas and faults in the BZ25-1 oilfield, lead to different results of oil migration, accumula-tion and distribution.