The Government wells oilfield and Loma were discovered in the 1920's in Duval County, Texas. These two fields are just south of the famous seven sisters oilfield that was discovered by Humble Oil which later became EXXON/MOBILE. Today the Loma field still has the potential for considerable oil and gas recovery. Although this area tends to have heavy oil and very limited aquifers, it seems to be a perfect fit for CO2 flooding. A majority of the wells shown in the light greens and blues are plugged out.
Greta & Frio formations Victoria Texas, Placedo Oilfield
Was discovered in 1935 by Superior Oil Company of Oklahoma. The first discovery well was 1000ft below the Frio Formation. This is a current satellite image of the field that is clearly showing the depletion of the field and low energy as of 2013. Majority of these wells in the Placedo field are plugged out. Today if you were to drill a new well in the blue or purple you will have a 95% chance of a dry hole or noncommercial productive well. Your best chance of success is from yellow to red.
Chevron, Lost Hills Oillfield CA (Click on above scene for report)
In 1989, the formation appears tighter. As year progress the surface elevation decreases from the oil being extracted. This has led to changes in the surface reservoir structure. One noticeable effect shown in this data is an expansion of the field which indicates that oil and gas are being pushed outwards as the subsurface collapses and the surface elevation decreases. You can also see a decrease in energy between the years of 1989 and 1995. The lower two images of this scene shows the actual wells over the satellite data and a topo of the area. As you can see in sections 28, 27, 33, 34, 6 and 7, they have high indications of hydrocarbons and only show a few oil wells producing in these sections. Section 6 and 7 in the SW corner is on the edge of the North Belridge Field and has a couple of plugged oil wells with no production or log information. Section 27 and 28 show three wells plugged out with no production information. Although, there was a log for one of the wells that was drilled to 20,000td that does show oil on the log. More recent satellite data and well information would need to be analyzed for a more in-depth analysis over these areas. Over the years, hydrocarbon accumulation does in fact deplete over the years from producing wells and can move to other areas. Other factors that could cause subsurface fluids to move include earthquakes, fracking, etc.
The first scene is from 1989, while the second is from 1995. The third scene seems to have picked up a subsurface cavity. In scene one from 1989 you can see the formation appears to be tighter and has a stronger inclination of hydrocarbon energy then the scene from 1995. This satellite mapping technique for measuring the hydrocarbons shows two important facts. The data allows you to visualize the depletion and shows the impact of depressurizing this oil formation, it can cause the hydrocarbons to be pushed outwards. To read more about the effects of depressurization of oilfield and measuring surface decline with the use of synthetic aperture radar you can read the following report. "Rapid Subsidence over Oil Fields with Synthetic Aperture Radar". The scene labled Losthills - CA-46 is from the above mentioned report. JBA's satelllite data picked up the subsurface structure in 1989 . This scene from 1989 shows that the oilfield was going to reside into this cavity as the field depletes over time prior to the 1998 Nasa, Chevron "Rapid Subsidence over Oil Fields with Synthetic Aperture Radar" report.
Austin Chalk, the benefits of hydrocarbon satellite mapping when drilling horizontally.
The red arrows are pointing at two well locations drilled in south Texas located in the Austin Chalk formation. Well 4H and Well 2H. The 2H well was drilled on the outside of the anomaly in 2011 and ran a horizontal leg approximately 2400ft with only 1400ft in the actual high of the anomaly. This well produced approximately 400bopd for five months before dropping to 120bopd. The satellite data shows the production drop, was most likely due to drilling out of the formation. The majority of production most likely came from perforations with in the anomaly. The exact same thing happened on the 4H well except the production was significantly lower and production dropped a lot faster than the 2H well. There is only one dryhole in this scene. This well was not completed in the lower part of the formation where the others are producing.
Bakken Play, North Dakota, Charlson Oilfield
This scene is from 2009. Notice the oil wells along with the high energy reading for hydrocarbons. The red lines are horizontal legs according to the GIS data from North Dakota geological website. About 46 percent of McKenzie County in North Dakota is covered by oil and gas fields.The first oil boom in the state began with the completion of the Clarence Iverson No. 1 in 1951 and continued through 1966. In 1952, continued drilling along the Nesson anticline yielded the basin's first oil production from the Mississippian aged Madison Group (Bates, 1986). In what is known today as the Charlson Field , Amerada Corporation completed the #1 North Dakota "D" well for 127 barrels of oil per day from various zones. The well produced for five years for a cumulative total of 58,231 barrels of oil. Reserves in the Bakken (Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian), Birdbear (Devonian), Duperow (Devonian), Interlake (Silurian), and Red River (Ordovician) formations have also been established in the field from subsequent deeper drilling. This first boom would continue for a number of years. Drilling would reach a peak in 1958 with over 400 wells spud in the Study Area; however, production would continue to increase until 1966. A number of new and significant field discoveries would be made in the 15 year boom following initial discovery in the Clarence Iverson #1.
Haynesville Shale, Natural Gas Play, De Sotto Parish, Louisiana
This scene is from 2010. This natural gas field discovered by Chesapeake located just south of Mansfield Louisiana shows very high hydrocarbon energy intensity. In 2007, De Sotto was ranked one of the highest natural gas producers in the state. This information came from a report published by the bureau of land management covering Louisiana oil and gas production between 2000 to 2007. In 2007 De Sotto Parish was ranked fourth highest for production in the state. Showing 166 production wells with 54 horizontal wells. From 2000 to 2007 total count of production wells showed 1058 with an average production of 132. De Sotto Parish went from being one of the poorest Parishes in the state to one of the richest. The total depth of these wells in the Haynesville Shale range from 12,000-14,000 total depth. This is a perfect example of why you cannot drill using satellite mapping without any type of subsurface data. This is why JBA developed its own ground equipment that measures oil and gas that gives the depths of the source. This scene had no cumulative shows of oil and gas in the upper zones according to the well logs. Conclusions, although the satellite data shows promising results, had an operator drilled a shallow well in this scene they would have most likely had a dry hole.
Evangeline Parish, LA, Pine Prairie Oilfield, Miocene, Frio, & Willcox Formation
Discovered in 1860's, this saline salt dome had its first oil production at 425ft. Recently Midstates owned and operated this field prior to selling the field to Tana Exploration for an estimated 147 million according to press releases. Pine Prairie is a great oilfield showing over 30 different pay zones. This oilfield shows recent production in 2012 from some wells that were producing 300bopd from only 1800td and 750bopd in the Miocene formation at only 2400td. According to production records other wells in this scene are producing 600bopd in the Frio formation from 4500td to 6000td in reported in 2013. Notice in this scene the dry holes outside of the hydrocarbon anomalies. The oil wells shown in this scene are current producers.