An introduction to chert reservoirs of North America

Abstract

Jim Rogers has been studying mid-continent and Rocky Mountain hydrocarbon reservoirs for 46 years, often concentrating on Pennsylvanian and Mississippian carbonate rocks and cherts. After graduate school at The University of Michigan, Jim spent 15 years at the Shell university, studying with mentors R. N. Ginsburg, E. A. Shinn, R. H. Nanz, and H. A. Bernard, and prospecting in Kansas and North Dakota. In 1970 he began conducting independent regional reservoir studies with several associates. These studies were incorporated into his National Geological Services, Inc., in 1979. Jim continues to search for and write about prospective reservoirs while serving in various editorial positions and teaching geology in the Caribbean.Mark W. Longman is a consulting geologist who specializes in the study of carbonate rocks and reservoirs. He has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from specific core and petrographic studies on individual hydrocarbon reservoirs and wells to regional studies covering entire basins, states, and countries. His specialties include interpretation of carbonate depositional facies and diagenesis and tying these interpretations to wire-line logs. He received a B.A. degree from Albion College (Michigan) in 1972 and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976. Before becoming a consultant in 1984, he was a research geologist with Cities Service Company's research laboratory in Tulsa and later worked with Coastal Oil and Gas Corporation and Buttercup Energy in Denver. This volume represents part of the current work of more than 20 earth scientists who have studied hydrocarbon reservoirs in chert. Some in the petroleum industry will be surprised that many trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil have been and will be produced from these strange rocks. Despite this remarkable fact, the literature on hydrocarbons and pore space in chert reservoirs is …