Temperature Analysis In The Mature Hydrocarbon Province Of Kansas: Utilizing A Large Database Of Well-Completion Histories

Abstract

Commercially obtained bottom-hole temperatures (BHTs) were analyzed at a regional scale in the large, mature hydrocarbon province of Kansas in the US Midcontinent to investigate their usefulness for geothermal studies. The Petroleum Information Well-History Control System database was used to access BHTs recorded in exploration wells. BHTs were retrieved for the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) and the Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle Group and plotted and contoured to create a regional temperature pattern for each stratigraphic unit. BHTs were assumed to be at or near the top of the units. These patterns then were compared visually to other geological features, such as sediment thickness and structure. An empirical BHT correction factor established to a depth of 1000 m in a subarea in southeastern Kansas was applied to the large data set to correct for drilling disturbance. Because of the poor resolution of the BHT data, on the order of iA5iaC, for a given stratigraphic unit, the corrected BHTs of the Arbuckle and Mississippian measured 100-400 m apart are similar over much of the area. The application of the empirical correction factor results in temperatures that approximate formation temperatures in the eastern area but deviate slightly in central and western Kansas. Despite those differences, the general BHT pattern in the sedimentary veneer is reflected in the regional geologic structure, suggesting the BHTs are affected mainly by the depth at which they were recorded. No correlation was evident between the temperature pattern and the type of Precambrian basement rock.