Petroleum Geology of the Utica/Point Pleasant Play in Washington County, Ohio
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Petroleum Geology of the Utica/Point Pleasant Play in Washington County, Ohio Scott A. Brinkley June, 2016 Director of Thesis: Dr. Donald Neal Major Department: Geological Sciences The early Late Ordovician interval, known as the Utica-Point Pleasant play, in southeastern Ohio is poorly constrained due to limited data sets. A previous study by the Appalachian Basin Oil & Natural Gas Research Consortium and partners evaluated the interval across the Appalachian Basin using five cores. For this study, unpublished data from well Farley 1305-H, located in Washington County, Ohio, was used to better evaluate the Utica-Point Pleasant play in southeastern Ohio. The data include geophysical logs, Rock-Eval pyrolysis, mineralogy, triaxial testing, gas desorption, and porosity data. The Point Pleasant Formation, in regards to well Farley 1305-H and proximal area, has sufficient TOC (avg. 2.4 wt. %), gas-filled porosity (avg. 4.75 %), minerology (normalized clay value of 32%), and geomechanical properties to be a successful unconventional play. Geophysical logs correlate the formation’s high organic content and porosity. Calculations of % Ro values (avg. 1.6) are parallel to gas composition data, which indicates that a good portion of gas in place is wet and dry. The Utica Shale was determined to be a poor unconventional reservoir in regards to well Farley 1305-H, lacking conducive TOC (< 1 wt. %), gas-filled porosity (< 2 %), mineralogy (normalized clay value of 49 %), and geomechanical properties. Petroleum Geology of the Utica/Point Pleasant Play in Washington County, Ohio A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of the Department of Geological Sciences East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Geology by Scott A. Brinkley June, 2016 © Scott A. Brinkley, 2016 Petroleum Geology of the Utica/Point Pleasant Play in Washington County, Ohio by Scott A. Brinkley APPROVED BY: DIRECTOR OF THESIS: _________________________________________ Donald Neal, PhD COMMITTEE MEMBER: ________________________________________ Richard Spruill, PhD COMMITTEE MEMBER: ________________________________________ Eric Horsman, PhD COMMITTEE MEMBER: ________________________________________ K. Lee Avary, MS CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES: ____________________________________ Stephen Culver, PhD, DSc DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: _________________________________________ Paul J. Gemperline, PhD Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the generosity and assistance of Rick Brown. Further, I am extremely grateful for the feedback and guidance I received from Rick Brown, Don Neal, Eric Horsman, Richard Spruill, Lee Avary, Lou Bartek, Joel Hudley, and Drew Coleman. Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. vii Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Previous Studies .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Study Area ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Geologic Background .................................................................................................................................. 4 Lithostratigraphy ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Sequence Stratigraphy .............................................................................................................................. 10 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 Rock-Eval Pyrolosis .............................................................................................................................. 12 Total Organic Carbon ...................................................................................................................... 12 S1, S2, S3, & Tmax ............................................................................................................................ 12 Porosity .................................................................................................................................................. 14 Mineralogy ............................................................................................................................................. 16 Geomechanical ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Gas Composition ................................................................................................................................... 17 Geophysical Logs .................................................................................................................................. 19 Discussion .................................................................................................................................................. 21 Geochemistry ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Vitrinite Reflectance ............................................................................................................................. 27 Gas Composition ................................................................................................................................... 33 Mineralogy ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Porosity .................................................................................................................................................. 38 Geomechanical ...................................................................................................................................... 40 Sequence Stratigraphy .......................................................................................................................... 42 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 45 References Cited ........................................................................................................................................ 47 List of Tables Table 1, Rock-Eval pyrolysis results from core Farley 1305-H ............................................................ 13 Table 2, Porosity data for core Farley 1305-H ....................................................................................... 15 Table 3, XRD analysis results from core Farley 1305-H ....................................................................... 16 Table 4, Triaxial test results for core Farley 1305-H ............................................................................. 17 Table 5, Gas desorption summary for core Farley 1305-H ................................................................... 19 Table 6, Tmax correlations to oil and gas windows ............................................................................... 25 Table 7, Calculated % Ro values from Tmax for core Farley 1305-H ................................................. 30 Table 8, Normalized whole rock mineralogy values .............................................................................. 35 Table 9, Values used to calculate Ottman and Bohacs’ Hardness Percentage .................................... 37 List of Figures Figures 1a & 1b, Map of study area and location of well Farley 1305-H .............................................. 3 Figure 2, Paleogeographic map of North America during late Ordovician .......................................... 4 Figure 3, Diagram of the study area during early Late Ordovician....................................................... 5 Figure 4, Cross-section representation of the Point Pleasant sub-basin model ..................................... 6 Figure 5, Stratigraphic column for early Late Ordovician strata across Ohio ..................................... 7 Figure 6, Isopach and extent map of the Utica Shale and Point Pleasant Formation .......................... 8 Figure 7, Chronostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic diagram of the Late Ordovician strata in eastern Ohio ............................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 8, Geophysical logs from Farley 1305-H ..................................................................................... 20 Figure 9, Map of maximum TOC wt. % for the Upper Ordovican Shale interval across Ohio ........ 22 Figure 10, S2 vs TOC plot indicating the maturity of the Farley 1305-H core ..................................