Records of Unsuccessful Test Wells Drilled for Oil and Gas in Mississippi As of July 1, 1956
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Records of Unsuccessful Test Wells Drilled for Oil and Gas in Mississippi As of July 1, 1956 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLET, IN 1072-A Q615 no. lo7^ Records of Unsuccessful Test Wells Drilled for Oil and Gas in Mississippi As of July 1,1956 By HELEN M. BEIKMAN and SOPHIE DRAKOULIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1072-A UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1985 ,13 126 OSU3 lift I I 89 I . XL UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FRED A. S EATON, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Thomas B. Nolan, Director |For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. G. - Price 30 cents (paper cover) CONTENTS Abstract. ____ . ________ __ __ ___ __ ... 1 Wells drilled for oil and gas in Mississippi. __ ___ ______ .. 1 Literature cited. _ 6 ILLUSTRATIONS Page FIGUBB 1. Township with irregular sections______..___________ 2 2._Diagrammatic composite stratigraphic sections._____________ 4 Hi CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY RECORDS OF UNSUCCESSFUL WELLS DRILLED FOR OIL AND GAS IN MISSISSIPPI AS OF JULY 1, 1956 By HELEN M. BEIKMAN and SOPHIE DRAKOULIS Detailed locations, total depths, elevations, surface and bottom formations reported oil and gas shows, and completion dates are given for more than 2,200 wells drilled for oil and gas in Mississippi. The list includes all unsuccessful exploratory wells for which information was available as of July 1, 1956, with the exception of a few wells that were drilled to depths of less than 500 feet. WELLS DRILLED FOR OIL AND GAS IN MISSISSIPPI Exploratory drilling for oil and gas in Mississippi has been under way for more than 50 years. The tabulation given in this report includes all available information on more than 2,200 unsuccessful wells drilled to July 1, 1956, with the exception of a few wells that were drilled to depths of less than 500 feet. The well data contained in this tabulation were obtained from the files of the U. S. Geological Survey, supplemented by information from the Dixie Geological Service, the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board, and Henry Toler, consulting geologist, all in Jackson, Miss., and from many publications of the Mississippi Geological Survey. The authors express their appreciation to the above-mentioned and to the many individuals and oil-company representatives who con tributed information on wells and gave advice on the preparation of the composite stratigraphic sections. Special thanks are due to Paul and Ester Applin and to Watson H. Monroe, of the U. S. Geological Survey, for their advice and assistance. A map of Mississippi on which are shown the locations of most of the unsuccessful test wells, oil and gas fields, salt domes, and pipe lines has been published by the U. S. Geological Survey (Beikman and Drakoulis, 1958). The wells on this list are tabulated by counties arranged alphabet ically, and are located by township, range, and section within the county. The greater part of Mississippi has been subdivided accord ing to the standard system of townships, ranges, and sections; however, in parts of the State, townships are not subdivided into 36 regular mile-square sections but have a varying number of irregularly shaped sections. In order to give as precise a location as possible in tabular form for wells drilled in these irregular sections, a stand ard grid consisting of 36 regular sections was superimposed over those townships containing irregular sections (fig. 1) and the approximate regular section in which the well was drilled was deter mined. In the list of wells, the number in parentheses immediately following the township and range is this approximate regular section. 3 Miles FIOUEB 1. Township with irregular sections showing superposition of regular township grid. TEST WELLS DRILLED FOR OIL AND GAS IN MISSISSIPPI 3 Where the irregular section is in the same position as the regular section having the same number, no approximate regular section designation is given. A few wells have been drilled in areas near the Mississippi River and in the Mississippi Sound where townships either have not been established or are not standard. In order to give the locations of these wells, a regular township grid was super imposed or extended on base maps and locations in terms of this grid were determined. These locations are preceded by an asterisk in the table. In giving the names of the operators and the wells, space limitations imposed by the tabular presentation of data necessitated the use of some abbreviations that are not standard. All information pertaining to the wells is that of the most recent completion. For those wells that have been taken over by a different operator, have been reworked, drilled deeper, or plugged back, the data pertain to the final status of the well. Most of the elevations given for the wells are those of the derrick floor but another datum, such as the elevation of the ground at the well site, was recorded for a few wells. In checking different sources it was found that the elevations recorded for a well sometimes varied slightly; it also is not known with what degree of accuracy the eleva tions were determined. Similarly, small discrepancies were found among the sources checked concerning the total depths of the wells. The total depths of most of the wells are those recorded from the electric logs. The surface formations shown in the table were obtained by plotting the locations of the wells on the Geologic Map of Mississippi (Belt and others, 1945). Identifications of the oldest rocks reached in drilling were obtained in part from records of the U. S. Geological Survey and in part from records outside the survey. In either case the identifications were checked with other well records and with published sources and as needed the data from these records were supplemented by geologic interpretation. In the column "Reported shows of oil and gas," the symbol SO is used for shows of oil, SG for shows of gas, and SOG for shows of both oil and gas. The number or numbers following the symbol for a show indicates the depth to the top of the zone or the interval in which the show of oil or gas was encountered. The letter symbol following the number indicates the stratigraphic unit in which the oil or gas show occurred. The explanation for the letter symbols is shown in figure 2. CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY SOUTHERN AND WESTERN MISSISSIPPI NORTHEASTERN MISSISSIPPI § 0 &> Alluvium Qal Coastal deposits Qc Cockfield formation Tcf II & II 0 Cook Mountain formation Tcm Citronelle formation . Tct a: Sparta sand Ts Pascagoula and Hattiesburg formations Tph s 1 oe1 Zilpha clay, Winona sand, and TERTIARY Catahoula sandstone Tea Neshoba sand, member of Tzn i the Tallahatta formation Rocks of Oligocene age To o o Tallahatta formation Tt Jackson group Tj Wilcox formation Tw Cockfield formation Tcf TERTIARY Midway group Tm Cook Mounta n formation Tcm I Prairie Bluff chalk and Kn §> Sparta sand Ts Owl Creek formation H H Zilpha clay and Winona sand Tzw O Ripley formation Kr Tallahatta formation Tt SelmaKsgroup Demopolis cha k Wilcox formation Tw Kd i CRETACEOUS Coffee sand Midway group Tm Mooreville chalk Kcs " Km Selma group (includes gas rock) Ks Eutaw formation Ke CP Eutaw formation Ke Tuscaloosa group Kt Tuscaloosa group Kt Rocks of Washita and Fredericksburg age Rocks of Comanche age Kc CRETACEOUS 1 Paluxy formation PENNSYL VANIAN, g Rocks of Pennsylvanian age P O- EROUS Comanche I Mooringsport formation J S 5 Ke CARBONIF 15 Ferry Lake anhydrite "= J3 S Chester series Me MISSISSIPPIAN 'o = Rodessa formation and " .2 Pre-Chester rocks ... associated rocks f ,| (includes Hartselle sandstone) Ml Hosston formation & DEVONIAN Cotton Valley group and associated rocks Jc JURASSIC Rocks of Devonian age D "3 Smackover formation and associated rocks Jsm 3? Rocks of Silurian age S 55 °= Salt Js 0:0 ^(/3 CAMBRIAN OROOVICIAN AND Rocks of Ordovician and Cambrian age OCu Caprock of undetermined cr age overlying salt domes FIOUEE 2. Diagrammatic composite stratigraphic sections of rocks penetrated by drilling in Mississippi. TEST WELLS DRILLED FOE OIL AND GAS IN MISSISSIPPI 5 The shows of oil and gas that are shown in the list are those that have been reported in the sources of information that were checked in preparing this tabulation; however, the accuracy of the shows has not been verified. The reported shows may vary in magnitude from a stain of oil or odor of gas to as much as several barrels of oil or several thousand cubic feet of gas. The information concerning the age of the rocks in which oil and gas shows were reported was obtained in the same way as were the identifications of the oldest rocks reached. .The composite sections in figure 2 show the rocks that have been penetrated by drilling in Mississippi. These sections illustrate the age relationships of the units that are shown by means of symbols in the "Stratigraphic unit" and "Reported shows of oil and gas" columns of the tabulation. In order to avoid conflicts and errors that would probably be inherent in a detailed presentation of the stratigraphy of the State, these sections have been constructed diagrammatically, and thickness and correlation of units are not shown. Rocks of Gulf age in southern and western Mississippi are referred to by some geologists in the terminology used in Texas. This terminology includes the Navarro group and Taylor marl (equivalent to much of the Selma group), the Austin chalk (equivalent to the lower part of the Selma group and the upper part of the Eutaw formation), the Eagle Ford shale (equivalent to the lower part of the Eutaw formation and the uppermost part of the Tuscaloosa group), and the Woodbine formation equivalent to the major part of the Tuscaloosa group).