The History of Exploration in Petroleum Provinces in the United States

Abstract

The history of petroleum exploration across the United States is displayed and animated on a Macintosh IIcx computer. The oil, gas, or nonproductive category of each drilled 1-mi{sup 2} area in each province is displayed in cumulative 5-year increments from 1900 through 1986. The U.S., excluding Hawaii and Maine, is divided into about 50 major petroleum-producing provinces, each about 4-5 longitude-latitude degrees in size. Displayed data represent the temporal progression of exploration from development of early, generally shallow structural plays to that of deeper plays and the discovery of subtle traps. For example, drilling in 1920 in the Denver basin of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming primarily tested Pierre Shale seeps whereas a boom starting in the 1950s resulted in development of mainly stratigraphic traps in the Muddy Sandstone. The primary source of drill-hole data is the Petroleum Information Corporation Well History Control System data base. Drill-hole location, completion date, and production data were analyzed on a VAX 11/780 computer using a series of U.S. Geological Survey Fortran programs that divided each region into grid cells, each about 1 mi{sup 2}, and calculated the type and highest level of petroleum production within each cell. Data from state oil and gasmore » fields maps were used to fill in areas of poor data control. The exploration maps were generated with Macintosh Macspin software on a Macintosh II computer. U.S. political boundaries were created with Macintosh Mapmaker software. Map images were animated with Supercard software.« less