Structural History and Reservoir Characteristics (Mississippian) of Nesson Anticline, North Dakota: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Nesson anticline is the largest hydrocarbon productive structure in the North Dakota portion of the Williston basin. Nesson anticline was discovered in 1951, just a few months after discovery of oil in the Williston basin. Fifty-four fields, producing from 14 lower to middle Paleozoic formations, are scattered along the north-south length of the anticline. Nesson anticline fields have produced a total of 377 million bbl of oil, with the Madison Group accounting for two-thirds of the total production. Central southern parts of the anticline were subdivided into nine areas that revealed episodic and independent structural movement since the late Precambrian. All Phanerozoic periods are present within the stratigraphic section. Unconformity-bound, major tectonic-eustatic sequences were mapped along the length of the Nesson anticline, and sedimentary tectonics were documented for the entire Phanerozoic. Greatest amounts of tectonic development of the anticline were during the Devonian to Early Mississippian. Post-Greenhorn, Laramide tectonism was responsible for the last major structural deformation of the anticline. Selected oil fields, productive from the Madison Group, were studied where they are productive from the Mission Canyon Formation and the Rival (Nesson) subinterval. These intervals record sediment infill of a slowly shrinking epeiric sea, as a series of shorelines more » separated by brief transgressions prograded toward the center of the basin. The Mission Canyon Formation can be characterized as a major shallowing-upward sequence, which upsection is (1) shallow open marine, (2) transitional open to restricted marine, (3) restricted marine, and (4) fringing marginal marine. Barrier island and shoreline buildup complexes developed along the shoreline, with bedded evaporites located away from the anticline toward the east and south. « less