Exploration Potential of Pennsylvanian-Permian Carbonate-Shelf Margins and Deltaic Sandstones, Palo Duro Basin, Texas: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Potential hydrocarbon reservoirs occur in Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) carbonate-shelf margins, fan-delta arkosic sandstones, and deltaic sandstones in the Palo Duro basin. Thick basinal shales, which are stratigraphically equivalent to shelf carbonate rocks and sandstones, may have served as hydrocarbon source beds, although present thermal gradients are inadequate for liquid hydrocarbon generation. During the Pennsylvanian, a carbonate-shelf-margin complex with 200 to 400 ft (60 to 120 m) of depositional relief developed around a narrow embayment that opened southward into the Midland basin. The position of local shelf margins shifted through time. Following initial construction, shelf margins retreated shelfward throughout Pennsylvanian and earliest Permian time. During later Wolfcampian, shelves prograded westward and southward into the basin, filling it by late Wolfcampian time. Potential hydrocarbon reservoirs are thick zones of secondary porous dolomite within the shelf-margin complex. Dolomite porosity is commonly greater than 10%. The distribution of porous dolomite along shelf margins may indicate dolomitization was related to (1) early postdepositional, mixing-zone diagenesis in islands present along the shelf margin, or (2) dewatering of basinal shale, leading to montmorillonite-illite conversion and release of magnesium during burial diagenesis. Pennsylvanian and Permian fan-delta deposits of arkosic sandstone (granite wash) shed off the Amarillo uplift are potential clastic reservoirs. Production occurs from stratigraphically equivalent, granite wash deposits on the northern side of the uplift in the Anadarko basin. Porosity in granite wash sandstones averages 15%. Pennsylvanian quartzose sandstones are also interbedded with thick sequences of basinal shale, suggesting that the sand entered the basin through passes in the shelf margin. Geometry of sandstone bodies suggests deposition as distributary-mouth-bar fingers of high-constructive elongate deltas. Porosity in these sandstones reaches 18%. End_of_Article - Last_Page 461------------