Shale Gas Potential of the DJ Basin, Wattenberg Gas Field, Denver Basin, Colorado
Deacon, Marshall1, Robert E. Locklair2, David Hill1, Emily
Miller3, Edmund R. "Gus" Gustason4
1EnCana Oil & Gas,
USA, Denver, CO
2Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
3
EnCana Oil & Gas, USA, Denver, CO
4El Paso Exploration and
Production Company, Denver, CO
The Wattenberg Gas Field, in northeastern Colorado, has
produced more than 2 TCFE from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) J
Sandstone and Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Codell Sandstone.
Approximately 700 feet of organic-rich, fine-grained, Cretaceous
source rocks or “shales” occur stratigraphically below, within and
above these main reservoirs. In ascending order, these shales include
the Skull Creek Shale, Mowry Shale, Graneros Shale, Greenhorn
Formation, Niobrara Formation, and Sharon Springs Member of the
Pierre Shale. The shales are marine (Type II kerogen), have relatively
high total organic carbon content (2-10% TOC), are thermally mature
(> 0.8 Ro), are saturated with gas, and most have anomalously high
pressure gradients. Approximately 60% of the wells in Wattenberg
Field are faulted, but open fractures are rare.
Based on an integration of 2000 feet of core from several wells,
historical production data and wire line logs from 7000 wells, as well
as fall-off injection tests, microseismic analysis of hydraulic fractures,
and production tests in several new wells, 700 feet of potential “gas
shales” were reduced to two intervals, the Niobrara and Greenhorn
formations. Although open fractures are rare, these rocks have high
calcium carbonate content and are “fracable”. Unfortunately, the two
most organic-rich and gas-saturated shales, the Sharon Springs
member and the Graneros Shale, have a high clay content and could
not be fracture stimulated. However, they probably form the top and
bottom seals for this resource play.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90071 © 2007 AAPG Rocky Mountain Meeting, Snowbird, Utah