Oil development and potential of Mississippian and older formations in San Juan County, Utah (OFR-156)

By: H. W. Merrell

The only major oil field that produces from reservoir rocks of Mississippian age or older in the State of Utah is the Lisbon Field which is located in San Juan County, Utah. This field has produced about 48 million barrels of oil and 295 million mcf of gas from 1960 through 1988. The majority of the production is from the Mississippian Redwall Formation with some co-mingled Devonian Ouray production. There has also been production from the McCracken Member of the Elbert Formation of Devonian age, this production has been the Lisbon Field accounts for 6% of the oil production and 18% of the gas production in the state of Utah. Although there are many test wells drilled in San Juan County, Utah each year, very few of them test the Mississippian age or older rocks, and a large majority of the wells only test the upper section of the Paradox Formation of Pennsylvanian age. There have only been about 250 wells that tested the Mississippian or older formations in the area of San Juan County covered by this report. This means that the density of these test wells average only one drill hole per 26 square miles and many of these test wells are located in clusters. This makes one well per 16,500 acre makes very widespread drilling that could have missed discovering new oil or gas fields. There are some small one to three well gas fields located near Lisbon Field and a few scattered wells that have tested small amounts of oil and gas, but up to the present time no other oil or gas fields have been discovered in Mississippian age or older strata.

The compilation and study of the available data gives a summary of past drilling and production history. This study shows potentials of trends of hydrocarbons in the Mississippian, Devonian, and Cambrian age formations in San Juan County, Utah.

Other Information:
Published: 1989
Pages: 26 p.
Plates: 6 pl.
Location: San Juan County
Media Type: Paper Publication