Claiborne Parish Research Articles

Contesting Pollution in Dixie: The Case of Corney Creek

NATIONAL SURVEYS OF WATER QUALITY IN THE MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY repeatedly identified the U.S. urban industrial core--the heavily populated areas of the Northeast and Midwest--as the (see Figure 1). (1) In 1956 Congress strengthened the U.S. Public Health Service's ability to intervene in interstate pollution conflicts, and the might logically have been the setting for the first enforcement effort. Rather, Corney Creek, an obscure stream in Louisiana (see Figure 2), was the initial battleground for federal action in 1957. Corney Creek is one of several waterways that drain a small rural basin that straddles the Louisiana-Arkansas state line. Concerns about water quality arose there after crude-oil production commenced in the basin's upper reaches during the late 1930s. A decade later, both Louisiana and federal agencies had documented an obvious pollution problem resulting from brine discharges from oil wells into surface waters. Soon thereafter, sport fishermen in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, complained of fish kills in the creek and in Corney Lake, a federal reservoir that impounded the stream's flow. These circumstances were unremarkable in the oil fields of Louisiana, Arkansas, and nearby Texas. Yet, sportsmen's complaints ultimately triggered the first federal interstate water pollution hearing. In contrast, subsequent enforcement actions elsewhere required a public health issue to provoke action. Of all the instances of stream pollution in the 1950s, what prodded a cautious federal agency to react in this case? What elevated a few fish kills in a tiny tributary to the Ouachita River to a status that justified federal intervention? [FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED] While some answers to these questions are particular to the situation, the Corney Creek pollution case also provides insight into far larger issues in the emerging efforts to protect water quality in the United States and particularly in the South. This example highlights three points about southern environmental history: (1) unlike the Northeast and Midwest, southern pollution abatement began with natural resource protection, not urban public health, (2) contrary to the typical historical interpretation that southern states tolerated pollution caused by new industries, citizens of the region exhibited a fundamental popular opposition to environmental degradation, and (3) residents affected by pollution sought assistance from parish authorities, who turned directly to federal agencies rather than relying on state officials. These factors put a particularly southern frame around the situation. Historians of the South have long recognized the importance of the environment--particularly in terms of agricultural pursuits and public health--even if writing explicitly on environmental history has been a bit thin. (2) Yet this particular environmental conflict had several distinctively southern elements. The Corney Creek incident centered on a location that was in transition from a rural agricultural society to a more urbanized and industry-oriented locale. Places across the former cotton belt passed through similar adjustments, and each endured numerous alterations that were bound up in local policy, economics, environment, and tradition. In this respect, the Corney Creek basin characterizes much of the upland South and represents a broader pattern. One of the critical elements of this situation was the primacy of natural resources over public health in pollution policy. Government bodies certainly did not ignore public health in the South, but waterborne diseases took a secondary place to vector-borne illnesses and dietary ailments. Yellow fever plagued the South during the nineteenth century, but as medical science rejected the miasmatic theory in favor of insect-delivered bacteria, policies shifted to pest control. (3) Widespread installation of public sewer systems offered southern cities a means to reduce typhoid and diarrhea, but the intended purpose of the sewers was to export effluent from urban areas, which actually contributed to downstream pollution. …

Depositional Environments, Diagenesis, and Porosity of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic-Rich Tokio Sandstone Reservoirs, Haynesville Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Tokio Formation sandstones produce oil from sublitharenitic to litharenitic sandstones in the Haynesville Field. The Tokio interval is approximately 210 feet (64 m) thick, and has been divided into four sandstone zones separated by shales or scoured contacts. In ascending order, the four zones are the RA, S3, S2, and S1. The RA is composed of sublitharenites inferred to have been deposited in delta-front bars and distributary channels. The upper three zones are composed of litharenite and feldspathic litharenite to sublitharenite. The upper sands are interpreted to have been deposited in littoral environments including storm influenced shelf, tidal flats and channels, and barrier island/strand plain. The diagenesis of these sands is strongly related to composition: greater percentages of cements and secondary porosity occur in lithic-rich sandstones. Diagenetic cements in sublitharenites are mainly quartz overgrowths with minor early K-spar overgrowths on plagioclase, early chlorite-rims, and late patchy calcite, pyrite, and rare dolomite and siderite. Diagenesis in lithic-rich sands includes greater amounts of chlorite rim and pore-filling kaolinite cements and less quartz-overgrowth and other cements. The effect of the original mineralogy and diagenetic minerals on wireline logs includes: (1) reduction of SP due to cements, (2) increase in GR response due to K-spar and volcanic detritus, (3) higher resistivity due to carbonate minerals, and (4) increase in irreducible water saturation due to pore-lining and pore-filling clay. Thus, potential reservoir zones with lithic-rich sandstones like the Tokio could be overlooked in many areas around the world.

Giving Claiborne Parish the business

Giving Claiborne Parish the business

Deposition and Diagenesis of a Pettet Reservoir at Lisbon Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Rocks of the Pettet Zone at Lisbon Field consist of three shoaling upwards oolite cycles that were deposited over a paleotopographic high as dip trending, lenticular sand bodies. The lower 5 feet of the ooid shoals consist of superficial ooid packstones and grainstones. These rocks are succeeded vertically by ooid packstones and grainstones. Adjacent to the shoals are marine rocks consisting of intraclast, ooid, bivalve packstones and oyster wackestones and packstones. The open marine shelf downdip from the shoals and the marine lagoon updip from the shoals were blanketed by skeletal mudstones and wackestones. Shoal deposition is interpreted to have started during periods of relative sea-level rise. The basal two oolites are capped with unconformities that marked sea-level retreats. During these retreats, the topographically high shoal areas were partially exposed as islands, and silty shales were deposited as laterally equivalent facies in a quiescent marine environment. Diagenetic alteration began in the marine environment and continued into the subsurface. Marine diagenesis includes mainly micritization of grains in the oolites. Later, vadose and freshwater diagenesis occurred during the periods of exposure. Aragonitic allochems were selectively dissolved, and magnesian calcites were altered to low magnesium calcite. Lime mud underwent aggradational neomorphism, and columnar to blocky calcite rim cements were precipitated in the lower portions of the leached, sand buildups. Selective dissolution of aragonite produced abundant moldic porosity in the superficial ooid packstones and grainstones where the majority of the ooid nuclei were composed of mollusk fragments. In contrast, many ooid corticies around the moldic voids were preserved, suggesting that the corticies were of a different mineralogy--probably Mg-calcite. Compaction and attendant brittle fracture are common in the moldic superficial ooid facies, but microstylolitic grain contacts mark the more resistive regular ooid facies. Stylolitization is common in clay rich facies adjacent to the shoals. Virtually all of the diagenetic and primary porosity was partially filled by coarse calcite cement at this time. Subsequently, minor replacement and cementation by saddle dolomite and anhydrite occurred along with late dissolution. These features are most common in the lower two oolitic zones, and they characterize the deeper subsurface environment. The late dissolution event enlarged much of the porosity that had been partially occluded by the pore-filling calcite mosaic spar. Late leaching has significantly enhanced reservoir porosity. The reservoir at Lisbon Field consists primarily of facies selective, diagenetic porosity. Exploration and development in similar situations will require careful petrographic study combined with conventional stratigraphic mapping. End_of_Record - Last_Page 109-------

Problematical Petrophysical Characteristics of Smackover at Bayou Middle Fork Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Values of irreducible water saturation calculated from conventional electric and porosity logs at Bayou Middle Fork Field are often greater than 60 percent. Mercury injection curves reveal that the true water saturation averages about 40 percent. Scanning electron micrographs show oolitic grains that have been recrystallized and have rough irregular surfaces as well as intercrystalline porosity within the particles. Water adheres to these grain surfaces and occupies some of the intercrystalline porosity in productive zones, causing the calculated water saturations to read too high. Application of the Archie equation, the Guillotte et al. technique, and the Rocky Mountain technique each provide a different suite of water saturations. Archie water saturations average about 75 percent when density-neutron porosity values are used. Density-neutron porosity values tend to read about 2 porosity units low when compared with core porosity values throughout the field. When core-correlated porosity is used, the Archie saturation averages about 60 percent. The Guillotte et al. technique employs a variable textural parameter "w" which is dependent on porosity and permeability. Mean water saturation with this method averages about 49 percent, which is in better agreement with the mercury injection data. The Rocky Mountain ratio yields water saturations that are too high until the porosity balance technique is applied. Since Rt is assumed to read too low due to the excess immobile water, the Rocky Mountain derived porosities are too low. When Rt is increased to balance the porosity the water saturation averages about 43 percent, using z = .025. When the Rocky Mountain Rta is used in the Archie equation, water saturations more consistent with the mercury injection data result. In addition the difference between the observed Rt and the Rocky Mountain derived Rta can be plotted as a function of porosity.

Bayou Middle Fork Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana--Case History from Discovery to Waterflood: ABSTRACT

Bayou Middle Fork field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, is located in north-central Louisiana near the Arkansas-Louisiana border in an area known as the State-Line trend of the Upper Jurassic Smackover Formation. Smackover production in the area is associated with a complex fault system masked by approximately 10,000 ft (3,000 m) of younger sediments. geophysical program combined with geologic studies indicated a faulted, deep-seated east-west-trending anticline. On the basis of this evidence, Cities Service Co. drilled a test well on the structure and discovered the Smackover reservoirs at Bayou Middle Fork field in March 1975. Core and sample studies made as the field developed showed the Smackover at Bayou Middle Fork field to be a limestone composed mainly of oolites, hardened pellets, pisolites, oncolites, and micrite. This limestone has been divided into three units designated as the Smackover A, B, and C. The general environmental setting that produced these sediments varied from low- to high-energy conditions over a broad, shallow, gradually south-sloping marine shelf. This environmental setting underwent continual minor sea-level fluctuations and structural changes, producing an interfingering and mixing of the various carbonate sediments. One major change occurred as sea level completely receded. The shelf was exposed to supratidal conditions which resulted in the deposition of evaporitic and contin ntal sediments. This regression ended Smackover C deposition and produced the Buckner B member of the stratigraphic section, which was followed by a partial transgression and subsequent regression resulting in the Smackover B and A being deposited in an offlap sequence. This second withdrawal of the sea ended Smackover deposition and again produced conditions for accumulation of supratidal and continental sediments. Porosity preserved within the oolitic rocks is primary intergranular and has been enhanced by leaching of the oolites. Effective porosity varies from a low of 8% to a high of 23.7% and permeability ranges from less than 1 to 270 md. During early development of the field, the porosity and water values from log analysis indicated the possibility of substantial water production. However, as wells were completed, no water was produced; scanning electron microscope and petrographic work revealed the presence of microporosity containing irreducible water. Smackover production at Bayou Middle Fork field is from three separate reservoirs, the Smackover C, and upper and lower A. The lower Smackover A reservoir, the largest of the three, contains volatile oil, that through primary production is produced by solution gas drive, with recovery of only 20% of the oil in place. To provide pressure maintenance, a water-drive system was chosen. It is estimated that an additional 20% of the oil in place will be produced by the waterflood program. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1600------------

Clasticity Index--Key to Correlating Depositional and Diagenetic Environments of Smackover Reservoirs, Oaks Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Oaks field is a stratigraphically trapped Smackover field which produces from at least three separate reservoirs. Individual reservoirs are shoaling-upward carbonate grainstone cycles. The three reservoirs are offlapping and are separated from each other by a nonporous terrigenous-rich clastic facies. The oldest two reservoirs were deposited as well-defined barrier island complexes up to 4 1/2 mi long and less than one-half mile wide. The youngest reservoir is less well defined and was deposited primarily as coalescing bars which were only occasionally emergent. All carbonate facies were deposited as mud-free oolitic and rhodolitic grainstones. The majority of porosity occlusion was by early cementation in the meteoric phreatic, mixed phreatic, and vadose zones, paralleling depositional strike. These environments are confirmed by stable isotope analysis. Ten of the 13 producing wells and all five dry holes were conventionally cored. Thin sections were made at 1-ft intervals from permeability plugs, corresponding with measured values of porosity and permeability. Detailed petrographic correlation of wells allowed the individual reservoirs to be subdivided into distinct mappable units based on a plot of the diameter of the largest coated carbonate grain (clasticity index) in each thin section. Clasticity index provides a simple tool for rapid and precise well correlation within individual reservoirs. Such detailed correlations are not possible by conventional log methods in this field. Prior to incorporating petrographic analysis into the development drilling program, the field consisted of seven producing wells and three dry holes. By combining clasticity plots and other petrographic information with porosity isopach values, the field size was almost doubled with the successful completion of the next six holes drilled.

Geology of Upper Member of Buckner Formation, Haynesville Field Area, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

Haynesville is the largest of the Arkansas-Louisiana shelf-slope fields which are productive from calcarenites of the upper members of the Late Jurassic Smackover and Buckner Formations. Although associated with closure against a post-Smackover fault, hydrocarbon accumulation in the Haynesville field is stratigraphically controlled. Contrary to widespread belief, the main producing zone is part of the Buckner Formation, rather than Smackover, and is here designated A2. On the shelf slope, Smackover calcarenite bars were formed on turbulent shoals usually localized by contemporaneous structural uplifts, and in the Haynesville area these bars have a northeast trend. In contrast, the overlying Buckner calcarenites suggest a beach environment associated with the actively subsiding seaward edge of the shelf slope, along which was deposited an east-west calcarenite bank up to 600 ft thick. At Haynesville, several transgressive calcarenite units extend updip from this Buckner bank, and one of these, the A zone, can be traced regionally and is productive in many shelf-slope fields. The bank contains environmentally controlled facies very similar to those observed in the Smackover, but the most important is a moderate-energy, nonporous, pelletoid, commonly fossiliferous, mixed facies. Higher energy conditions on such positive features as Haynesville led to deposition of a porous reservoir facies in updip areas. Differences in orientation and configuration between Smackover and Buckner calcarenite zones suggest a period of structural adjustment, but by the beginning of A2 deposition, a fairly regular east-west strike had been established. During periods of regression or lack of subsidence, evaporitic mudflats landward of the calcarenite beaches advanced south toward the regional bank. An idealized section from updip to downdip through a typical Buckner cycle would include evaporitic mudstone, shaly transitional limestone, reservoir, mixed, and pellet-mud facies. After final regression and uplift of the continent, Buckner mudstone graded into the overlying nonmarine sandstone of the P tongue of the Schuler Formation. Movement contemporaneous with sedimentation began along a larg down-to-north fault after A zone deposition, but the greatest displacement occurred during P tongue deposition.

Geology of a Smackover Stratigraphic Trap

Oil at Lick Creek field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, is produced from a calcarenite bar at the top of the Late Jurassic Smackover Formation. Production is limited updip by absence of porosity and downdip by water. On the Smackover shelf slope, calcarenite deposition and resultant porosity were concentrated on turbulent shoals localized by contemporaneous structural movement. Isopach maps of intervals in the upper Smackover at Lick Creek show stratigraphic closure, and some structural irregularity presumably initiated deposition of these intervals. If structural closure were present, it has been removed by subsequent tilting, leaving only a pronounced nose. The reservoir facies at Lick Creek is largely oolites with sparry calcite cement and primary intergranular porosity; it grades into the overlying Buckner mudstone. Below the reservoir there is a thick terrigenous section, mostly calcareous sandstone. Underlying this sandstone is a pellet-mud facies which is commonly partly dolomitized, and associated with it are zones of microcrystalline dolomite and of disturbed mud with birdseyes. Below the pellet mud, a mixed facies, which elsewhere contains a variety of grains and matrix, is postulated. Because of hypersalinity during deposition, Smackover allochems are almost entirely nonskeletal and are similar to those forming in the Bahamas. In the Lick Creek area, upper Smackover sedimentation began with deposition of a pellet mud in quiet, shallow water; a widespread zone of dolomite within this facies suggests a period of subaerial exposure. Structural shifts caused local turbulence, resulting in deposition of a bar of mixed facies. Following a decrease in turbulence, pellet mud again spread over the entire area, and supratidal flats were present on the north. A flood of terrigenous detritus reduced the importance of carbonate deposition for a time, but this influx ceased abruptly. Salinity and turbulence became favorable for intensive oolite accretion, and the reservoir facie was deposited. Continued regression and increasing amounts of fine terrigenous detritus caused a transition to Buckner evaporitic mudflats.

Environmental Control of Porosity in Upper Smackover Limestone, North Haynesville Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

Present porosity of the reservoir rock in North Haynesville field is limited to primary intergranular pore space. Certain facies contained larger, better connected pores as a result of deposition in a higher energy environment, but preservation of this porosity against cementation and pressure solution makes the diagenetic environment equally critical. Regionally, Smackover porosity is confined to a coastal shelf where calcarenites with primary intergranular porosity were widespread, and to a shelf slope where the calcarenites were confined largely to local shoals resulting from contemporaneous uplift. A calcarenite bar along the seaward edge of the shelf slope restricted circulation. North Haynesville field is behind this barrier. Because of hypersalinity, Smackover allochems are almost entirely nonskeletal, and deposition resembled that of the Bahama Banks. Pelletal mud was deposited in quiet, shallow water with probable periods of subaerial exposure. Slight differential structural movement permitted turbulence in local areas where a mixed facies was deposited. Further movement, probably including lowering of the seaward barrier, created conditions favorable for extensive oolitic accretion during deposition of the reservoir facies. This turbulent shoal environment produced clean, well-sorted calcarenite with excellent porosity, much of which was destroyed through cementation with sparry calcite, possibly under subaerial conditions. A completely cemented zone at the top of the reservoir facies prevented further entry End_Page 2032------------------------------ of dissolving or precipitating waters. Evidence of compaction is common in the reservoir, but early partial cementation and migration of oil prevented excessive compaction by retarding pressure solution. The lower energy mixed-facies environment produced an unsorted calcarenite with abundant mud matrix and poor porosity; pressure solution reduced porosity even further. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2033------------

Petrology of Upper Smackover Limestone in North Haynesville Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

This study has led to a reconstruction of the environment of deposition of the upper Smackover section (Late Jurassic) at North Haynesville field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, and may aid in the prediction of other productive trends. The interval studied includes the oolitic and pelletoid B reservoir which contains about 16 million bbl of oil in place. Petrographic examination of etched core slabs resulted in a grouping of upper Smackover carbonate rocks into environmentally controlled facies, each of which has distinctive characteristics on the electric log. Because of probable hypersalinity in the Smackover sea, allochems are almost entirely nonskeletal. In order of decreasing importance, these include: pellets, oolites, lumps and composite grains, algal pisolites and oncolites, and quartz and anhydrite grains. The Smackover transition facies is gradational into the overlying Buckner shale and includes a shaly subfacies composed largely of pellets and recrystallized oolites in a matrix of shale and/or silt-size anhydrite or dolomite, and a sandy subfacies composed of pellets with abundant quartz sand grains and sparry calcite cement. Below the transition facies, in order of decreasing energy level, are: (1) the reservoir facies composed of oolites and superficially coated pellets with spar cement and primary intergranular porosity; (2) the mixed facies composed of subequal quantities of all grain types with spar cement and mud matrix; and (3) the pellet-mud facies composed of pellets in a mud matrix which commonly is dolomitized. The pellet-mud facies also contains minor amounts of very argi laceous dolomite and disturbed mud. Deposition of nonskeletal particles in the late Smackover sea resembled in some aspects that of the present Bahama Banks. Pellet-mud was deposited in warm, quiet, shallow, probably hypersaline water. Subsequently slight differential uplift caused turbulence in local areas, where the mixed facies was deposited. Later regional uplift and regression brought about conditions favorable for extensive oolite accretion, resulting in reservoir-facies deposition. Continued uplift of land areas on the north supplied increasing amounts of terrigenous detritus to the transition facies, and carbonate deposition eventually ceased. Analysis of dry holes in North Haynesville field indicates that nondeposition or complete cementation of the reservoir facies is more important than present structure in limiting the productive area. However, only those wells favorably located with respect to present structure, as well as to structure during deposition and diagenesis, are productive. Additional porosity trends may be discovered by comparing field dry holes with those in other areas.

Primary High Pressure Water Flooding in the Pettit Lime Haynesville Field

Abstract The case history of a combination gas and water flood instituted early inthe life of a field is described. It was recognized from the beginning thatrecovery would be low, under normal production methods, from the severalseparate, thin beds of porous limestone which had such poor native permeabilitythat the wells would not produce without acidizing. It is thought that thecombination flood gives excellent recovery efficiencies for this type ofreservoir. The chief function of the gas flood now is to maintain bottom holepressure in that part of the reservoir which will not be affected by the waterinjection program until later. Present estimates are that ultimate recoverywill be approximately double the recovery expected under the original solutiongas drive mechanism. Wide (80-acre) spacing has enhanced the economics of theover-all field program by the elimination of more than $5,000,000 worth ofunnecessary wells. Introduction The Haynesville Pettit Field was discovered in November, 1941, with thecompletion of T. L. James Co.'s Callie Akin No.1, located in the W ? of the NE? Section 27–23N-8W, Claiborne Parish, La., at an approximate depth of 5,30'Ft. The center of the field is about two miles north and a mile west of thetown of Haynesville, La. A total of 189 producing wells have been drilled on14,500 acres. An additional nine dry holes were drilled. The Louisiana-Arkansasstate line divides the field so that 34 wells are in Arkansas and 155 are inLouisiana. Governmental sections are divided equally to contain eight production unitsmaking 80-acre spacing where the sections are regular. Along the state line inLouisiana there is an irregular tier of sections, each of which containsapproximately 456 acres. When divided equally into eight production units thespacing is 57 acres per well for these three and a fraction productivesections. All Haynesville Pettit wells are identified by their section numberfollowed by their position in the section as determined by numbering theproduction units counterclockwise beginning in the upper right corner of thesection. All of the producing wells in the field except two are unitized and operatedby the Haynesville Operators Committee. These two wells are located in theextreme northern part of the field in Arkansas. Efforts to bring them into theUnit are being continued. The Pettit operators organized the Haynesville Operators Committee and thefield became a unit operation May 1, 1944. T.P. 3077

Summary of Development in South Arkansas and North Louisiana during 1941: ABSTRACT

During the year 1941, 26,183,478 barrels of oil and distillate were produced in Arkansas and 26,770,512 barrels in North Louisiana. During December, 1941, there were 2,936 oil- and distillate-producing wells in South Arkansas and 4,153 wells in North Louisiana. A total of 207 wells were drilled in South Arkansas during 1941 with total footage End_Page 901------------------------------ of 853,032 feet. In North Louisiana 798 wells were drilled with total footage of 2,355,514 feet. Of the total of 1,005 wells drilled in South Arkansas and North Louisiana, 564 were oil wells; 123 were gas and gas-distillate wells, 187 were dry holes in fields and 131 were wildcat dry holes. In South Arkansas, during 1941 Travis Peak production was discovered in the Smart sand area of the Stephens field of Columbia County. Cotton Valley production was discovered in the East Schuler field in Union County, and Smackover lime gas-distillate production in the Macedonia field, in Columbia County. Smackover lime oil production was discovered in the Mt. Holly field, Union County and in the Patton field, Lafayette County. In North Louisiana during 1941 six Eocene Wilcox sand oil fields were discovered in La Salle Parish and two in Catahoula Parish, with one gas-producing area in Caldwell Parish. Lower Cretaceous Pettit limestone oil production was discovered in the Haynesville field, Claiborne Parish, during 1941. Other Claiborne Parish discoveries are the Athens and North Lisbon fields where gas-distillate production was found in the Travis Peak. Smackover lime gas-distillate production also was developed in the North Lisbon field, the only Smackover production to date in North Louisiana. End_of_Article - Last_Page 902------------

Developments in North Louisiana and South Arkansas in 1941

During the year 1941, 26,183,478 barrels of oil and distillate were produced in South Arkansas and 26,770,512 barrels in North Louisiana. During December, 1941, there were 2,936 oil- and distillate-producing wells in South Arkansas and 4,153 wells in North Louisiana. Two hundred seven wells were drilled in South Arkansas during 1941 with the total of 853,032 feet. In North Louisiana 798 wells were drilled with the total of 2,355,514 feet. Of the total of 1,005 wells drilled in South Arkansas and North Louisiana, 564 were oil wells, 123 were gas and gas-distillate wells, 187 were dry holes in fields, and 131 were wildcat dry holes. In South Arkansas, during 1941, Hosston (Travis Peak) oil was discovered in the Smart sand area of the Stephens field of Columbia County. Cotton Valley oil was discovered in the East Schuler field in Union County, and Smackover limestone gas-distillate in the Macedonia field, in Columbia County. Smackover limestone oil was discovered in the Mount Holly field, Union County, and in the Patton field, Lafayette County. In North Louisiana, during 1941, six Eocene Wilcox sand oil fields were discovered in La Salle Parish and two in Catahoula Parish, and one gas-producing area in Caldwell Parish. Lower Cretaceous Pettit limestone oil was discovered in the Haynesville field, Claiborne Parish, during 1941. Other Claiborne Parish discoveries were the Athens and North Lisbon fields where gas-distillate was found in the Hosston (Travis Peak). Smackover limestone gas-distillate also was developed in the North Lisbon field, the only Smackover production to date in North Louisiana.

Sugar Creek Field, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

The Sugar Creek oil and gas field, discovered in March, 1930, is located in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. At present, it has a producing area of about 4,000 acres. The structure controlling the accumulation of oil and gas in the field is an anticlinal dome about 5 miles long and 3 miles wide. The Upper Cretaceous structure conforms closely to that of the Comanche, but is much flatter. Dips on the beds of the structure steepen sharply toward the west, south, and southeast. The structure flattens toward the northeast, as it enters a synclinal saddle which forms the closure on that side. The dome is largely the result of deformation at the close of the Comanche and during the late Eocene period. Gas is produced from two reservoirs in the Trinity group locally designated the Kilpatrick and the Darrett zones. Oil in commercial quantities is found only in the Darrett zone. The Kilpatrick gas zone, which ordinarily is found immediately below the base of the Massive anhydrite of the Glen Rose group, consists of soft, porous, oolitic, gray limestone. The Darrett zone includes the transition beds between the Glen Rose formation above and the underlying Travis Peak, and also the upper 150 feet of the Travis Peak formation. It is composed chiefly of fossiliferous and oolitic limestones, red and gray sandstones, shales, and siltstones. As of January 1, 1938, total cumulative gas production from the Sugar Creek field amounted to approximately 33 billion cubic feet. Production of oil to the same date totaled 86,000 barrels. Present drilling activity in the field consists of two tests. One well, located near the top of the structure, is drilling at a depth of 9,800 feet, having already penetrated more than 2,000 feet of lower Marine Trinity black shales. The other well, located on the southwestern flank of the dome, is drilling in the Glen Rose.