The Mississippian Leadville Limestone Oil and Gas Play, Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah and Southwestern Colorado—Lisbon Field, Regional, and Analog Studies (B-139)

Compiled and edited by Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr., 246 p., 9 appendices, B-139

Summary:

The Mississippian Leadville Limestone produced over 53 million barrels of oil/condensate and 830 billion cubic feet of gas in the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. The Leadville was deposited in a warm, shallow-shelf marine environment and contains a wide variety of carbonate facies, which have undergone extensive dolomitization, brecciation, and other types of diagenesis. Traps are formed by both folds (anticlines) and faults; however, there is the untested potential for both stratigraphic and diagenetic traps particularly in the Paradox fold and fault belt in the vastly underexplored northern part of the basin.

This 246-page Bulletin consists of three components: (1) description of lithofacies and diagenetic history of the Leadville Limestone at Lisbon field, San Juan County, Utah; (2) regional studies of the Leadville play (identification of oil-prone areas using epifluorescence in well cuttings, and estimation of potential oil migration directions from evaluating the middle Paleozoic hydrodynamic pressure regime and water chemistry); and (3) description of modern and outcrop depositional analogs. Appendices include detailed maps, cross sections, core and thin section descriptions and photographs, measured sections, etc.

The research, data, conclusions, and recommendations contained in this Bulletin are anticipated to be a valuable resource for hydrocarbon exploration and production in the Paradox Basin and similar shallow-shelf marine regions worldwide, as well as for students and researchers studying carbonate rocks for years to come.