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Utah Geological Survey

The Gothic Shale at Greater Aneth Oil Field, Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah: Seal for Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide Geological Sequestration

Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr., Stephanie Carney, Jason Heath, and Thomas Dewers

Presented at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual convention, Denver, Colorado, June 9, 2009.

ABSTRACT

Greater Aneth oil field, Utah’s largest oil producer, was discovered in 1956 and has produced over 451 million barrels (bbls) of oil. Located in the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah, Greater Aneth is a stratigraphic trap producing from the Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation. Because it represents an archetype oil field of the western U.S., Greater Aneth was selected to demonstrate combined enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) sequestration. The Aneth Unit in the northwestern part of the field has produced 149 million bbls of the estimated 450 million bbls of OOIP—a 33% recovery rate. The large amount of remaining oil made the Aneth Unit ideal to demonstrate both CO2 storage capacity and EOR by CO2 flooding.

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Utah Geological Survey

Basin-wide evaluation of the uppermost Green River Formation's oil shale resource, Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado

greenriver_fm1 Michael D. Vanden Berg, Utah Geological Survey
Presented at the AAPG Annual Conference, Denver, CO, June 2009

ABSTRACT

Due to the recent increase in crude oil prices and concerns over diminishing conventional reserves, the Utah Geological Survey has reexamined the Uinta Basin’s oil shale resource, primarily in the Mahogany zone of the Green River Formation. We created conversion equations by correlating available Fischer assays with corresponding density and sonic measurements as a way to predict oil yield from geophysical logs. In addition to the core-based Fischer assays obtained from 107 wells drilled specifically for oil shale, 186 oil and gas wells with oil yields calculated from digitized bulk density or sonic logs were used to create a basin-wide picture of the oil shale resource in the Uinta Basin. These widespread data were used to map oil shale thickness and richness and create isopach maps delineating oil yields of 15, 25, 35, and 50 gallons of shale oil per ton (GPT) of rock. From these isopach maps, new basin-wide resource numbers were calculated for each richness grade.

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