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U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2020-3045

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U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2020-3045 U.S. Gulf Coast Petroleum Systems Project Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2019 Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 6.9 billion barrels of oil and 41.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in conventional and continuous accumulations in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations onshore and in State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Introduction Geologic Models for Assessment The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed undiscovered, The Austin Chalk, consisting of both chalk and marl, was technically recoverable oil and gas in the Upper Cretaceous deposited on a broad, low-relief marine shelf that deepened to the (Coniacian–Santonian) Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Forma- south and west during the Coniacian–Santonian marine transgression. tions in the subsurface of the Gulf Coast from southern Texas to Landward, to the northeast, the Austin Chalk transitions into sandstone the Florida Panhandle. The Austin Chalk and related stratigraphic and mudstone of the Tokio Formation in Arkansas and Louisiana and the units present onshore and in State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast Eutaw Formation in Mississippi and Alabama. The Tokio and Eutaw region are part of the Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Formations were deposited in shallow to marginal marine depositional Total Petroleum System (TPS) (Condon and Dyman, 2006). environments at the leading edge of the marine transgression. The source of hydrocarbons in Austin Chalk, Tokio, and Eutaw reservoirs 100° 98° 96° 94° 92° 90° 88° 86° varies spatially throughout the onshore Gulf Coast. Most of the ARKANSAS OKLAHOMA hydrocarbons in the Austin Chalk are found in Texas and sourced 34° ALABAMA from immediately underlying, thermally mature mudstone in the EAST TEXAS MISSISSIPPI BASIN PROVINCE GEORGIA 100° 98° 96° 94° 92° 90° 88° 86° UNITED STATES 32° ARKANSAS OKLAHOMA 34° TEXAS ALABAMA FLORIDA MISSISSIPPI GEORGIA 30° LOUISIANA UNITED STATES EAST TEXAS LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI 32° BASIN SALT BASIN PROVINCE PROVINCE LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI TEXAS 28° SALT BASIN PROVINCE FLORIDA WESTERN GULF GULF OF MEXICO 30° LOUISIANA BASIN PROVINCE 26° MEXICO 28° Base map from U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service WESTERN GULF BASIN GULF OF MEXICO EAST TEXAS LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI WV 0 100 200 300 MILES BASIN SALT BASIN PROVINCE KY VA PROVINCE PROVINCE OK AR TN NC 26° 0 100200 300 KILOMETERS AL SC MEXICO NM USA GA TX MS EXPLANATION LA Base map from U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service FL EAST TEXAS LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI WV Western Updip Fault Zone 0 100 200 300 MILES BASIN SALT BASIN PROVINCE KY VA Conventional Oil AU MEX PROVINCE OK AR TN NC Eastern Updip Fault Zone SC WESTERN Map GULF OF MEXICO 0 100200 300 KILOMETERS NM AL Conventional Oil AU GULF BASIN USA GA PROVINCE area TX MS Updip Salt Basins MEX EXPLANATION LA Conventional Oil and Gas AU FL Western Shelf Continuous Oil AU Middip Fault Zone and Salt MEX Conventional Oil AU Eastern Shelf Continuous Oil AU WESTERN Map GULF OF MEXICO Downdip Salt Basins GULF BASIN PROVINCE area Conventional Gas AU Western Shelf Edge Continuous Gas AU MEX Upper urassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Upper urassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum Composite Total Petroleum System (part) System (part) Figure 1. Map showing the Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Figure 2. Map showing the Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System and five conventional assessment Composite Total Petroleum System and three continuous assessment units (AUs) in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw units (AUs) in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk of the U.S. Gulf Formations of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Coast region. U.S. Department of the Interior Fact Sheet 2020–3045 U.S. Geological Survey ver. 1.1, December 2020 Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian) Eagle Ford Group extends across the shelf toward the south and west and includes (a coupled Eagle Ford-Austin Chalk petroleum system). In northern parts of the Sabine Uplift and North Louisiana and Mississippi Salt areas of Texas, the Eagle Ford is thermally immature, and the deep Basins (fig. 3). The southern boundary of the AU is the transition Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Smackover Formation is a source of hydro- of the sandstone lithofacies with the northern updip limit of the carbon. In eastern Texas and western Louisiana to the south where Austin Chalk. This boundary generally corresponds to a depth and the Eagle Ford is thin to absent, hydrocarbons in the Austin Chalk are temperature range that defines the thermal maturity threshold for derived from sources in older Upper Cretaceous rocks (Hood and others, oil generation (Ro=0.6 percent) in Cenomanian and Turonian source 2002). Hydrocarbons migrated into conventional reservoirs in the Austin rocks beneath the Tokio and Eutaw Formations (Montgomery, 1996; Chalk and into sandstones in the Tokio and Eutaw Formations along Hackley and others, 2018). The interface between the Western and regional-to-local faults and (or) salt diapirs. The Austin Chalk shows Eastern Updip Fault Zone Conventional Oil AUs occurs near the continuous reservoir characteristics where it overlies the thermally Texas and Louisiana State line where the Austin Chalk in Texas mature Eagle Ford or age-equivalent (Cenomanian–Turonian) source transitions to the Tokio Formation in Louisiana. rocks. Hydrocarbons expelled from Cenomanian–Turonian source The Updip Salt Basins Conventional Oil and Gas AU (fig. 1) is rocks under high temperatures and pressures migrated into continuous defined by areas in which movement of the Jurassic Louann Salt has reservoirs in the fractured, basal part of the Austin Chalk. influenced the migration, entrapment, and sealing of hydrocarbons in reservoirs of the Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations. Assessment Units These areas include the diapir trend in the Brazos Basin and parts Based on the petroleum-system framework, the USGS defined of the East Texas Basin and North Louisiana and Mississippi Salt and quantitatively assessed eight assessment units (AUs), five con- Basins (fig. 3). ventional and three continuous (figs. 1 and 2). Strata in the defined The Middip Fault Zone and Salt Conventional Oil AU (fig. 1) AUs within these areas share similar stratigraphic, structural, and is bounded on the north by the Lower Cretaceous shelf edge and on petroleum-charge histories. the south by the Upper Cretaceous shelf edge (fig. 3). Hydrocarbon The Western Updip Fault Zone Conventional Oil AU (fig. 1) accumulations within this AU are associated with salt diapirs and is defined by Austin Chalk reservoirs and is bounded on the northwest large-scale faults that are part of the deep Tuscaloosa fault zone in by the updip Austin Chalk/Eagle Ford outcrop belt and regional faults Louisiana. The western boundary of this AU is closely coincident (fig. 3). The AU extends west to the Texas border with Mexico with the Louisiana-Texas State line where shelf edges transition and includes parts of the Sabine Uplift and East Texas Basin. The from a less structurally complex shelf margin in Texas to an active AU extends downdip to the south across the shelf to a depth and and more structurally complex shelf margin in Louisiana. temperature corresponding to the thermal maturity threshold for The Downdip Salt Basins Conventional Gas AU (fig. 1), without oil generation based on vitrinite reflectance (Ro=0.6 percent) in the well penetrations, contains previously unassessed reservoirs in the Eagle Ford (Whidden and others, 2018). Austin Chalk. The northern limit of the AU is defined by the Lower The Eastern Updip Fault Zone Conventional Oil AU (fig. 1) and Upper Cretaceous shelf edges (fig. 3) and producing gas wells is defined by Tokio and Eutaw sandstone lithofacies and is bounded in the Eagle Ford of Texas. The southern limit is the boundary with on the northeast by outcrop and regional faults (fig. 3). The AU Federal waters in each of the respective States. 102° 100° 98° 96° 94° 92° 90° 88° 86° 84° TENNESSEE ARKANSAS O OKLAHOMA rogenic belt 34° North Louisiana ALABAMA UNITED STATES Salt Basin GEORGIA MISSISSIPPI Monroe East Texas Uplift Jackson Dome Sabine 32° Basin Uplift Uplift TEXAS Mississippi Salt LaSalle Basin Arch Uplift FLORIDA she aceous lf e per Cret dg 30° Brazos Basin Up e Wiggins Uplift LOUISIANA ge ed lf Maverick he s Basin us eo 28° tac EXPLANATION re C er w Austin/Eagle Ford outcrop Lo U Fault Thrust fault—Dashed where location approximate 26° 0 75 150 225 300 MILES Upper urassic–Cretaceous– MEXICO Tertiary Composite Total 0 75 150 225 300 KILOMETERS Petroleum System (part) Base map from U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Figure 3. Map showing major geologic features of the greater onshore Gulf Coast area where the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations were assessed (modified from Ewing and Lopez, 1991; Schruben and others, 1998; and Galloway, 2008). The Western Shelf Continuous Oil AU (fig. 2) is defined on (Ro=1.3 percent) in the underlying Eagle Ford (Whidden and others, the north by the updip limit of oil generation (Ro=0.6 percent) in the 2018). The southern boundary closely approximates the Lower Eagle Ford (Whidden and others, 2018). This threshold in thermal Cretaceous shelf edge (fig. 3) and the downdip limit of productive maturity is coincident with an observed transition from conventional gas wells in the Eagle Ford. This gas AU has no producing wells in reservoir field development of the Austin Chalk in the Western the Austin Chalk. Updip Fault Zone Conventional Oil AU to continuous reservoir field Table 1 lists input data used to calculate undiscovered development in the Western Shelf Continuous Oil AU.
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