Nonassociated gas resources in low-permeability sandstone reservoirs, lower tertiary Wasatch Formation, and upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, Uinta Basin, Utah

The US Geological Survey recognizes six major plays for nonassociated gas in Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous low-permeability strata of the Uinta Basin, Utah. For purposes of this study, plays without gas/water contacts are separated from those with such contacts. Continuous-saturation accumulations are essentially single fields, so large in areal extent and so heterogeneous that their development cannot be properly modeled as field growth. Fields developed in gas-saturated plays are not restricted to structural or stratigraphic traps and they are developed in any structural position where permeability conduits occur such as that provided by natural open fractures. Other fields in the basin have gas/water contacts and the rocks are water-bearing away from structural culmination`s. The plays can be assigned to two groups. Group 1 plays are those in which gas/water contacts are rare to absent and the strata are gas saturated. Group 2 plays contain reservoirs in which both gas-saturated strata and rocks with gas/water contacts seem to coexist. Most units in the basin that have received a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) designation as tight are in the main producing areas and are within Group 1 plays. Some rocks in Group 2 plays may not meet FERC requirements as tight reservoirs. However, we suggest that in the Uinta Basin that the extent of low-permeability rocks, and therefore resources, extends well beyond the limits of current FERC designated boundaries for tight reservoirs. Potential additions to gas reserves from gas-saturated tight reservoirs in the Tertiary Wasatch Formation and Cretaceous Mesaverde Group in the Uinta Basin, Utah is 10 TCF. If the potential additions to reserves in strata in which both gas-saturated and free water-bearing rocks exist are added to those of Group 1 plays, the volume is 13 TCF