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AND SUMMARY Two speculative oil and gas plays have been identified for the U.S. Geological Survey's national assessment covering the area of south-central and west-central New Mexico. There is currently no petroleum production from the assessed province. Because it overlaps two physiographic provinces, this assessment province is highly diverse geologically. The plays have favorable attributes of source and reservoir rocks and trapping mechanisms, plus compatible tectonic, thermal, and burial histories to produce commercial oil and/or gas. The first area is a highly speculative unconventional play exploiting coalbed methane in Upper Cretaceous strata. It is in the Colorado Plateau of western Cibola County on the southern flank of the Zuni Mountains beneath the Quaternary basalt field in North Plains Valley. The second area is a geographically-large conventional petroleum play in the Basin and Range Province of south-central New Mexico which encompasses the late Paleozoic Orogrande basin. Methane sorbed in coal undergoing metamorphism can be a major resource of gas. In the first play, shallow, thermogenic coalbed methane has probably been generated within nonmarine Upper Cretaceous strata which contain coal lenses and stringers and other beds with disseminated carbonaceous material. These beds have potential for generating an in-situ gas resource from sub-bituminous and high-volatile C bituminous coal by means of devolitalization. The play predominately emphasizes Dakota, Gallup, and Lower Crevasse Canyon (Dilco Coal Member) Formation reservoirs. The coalbed methane play is in an area of high present-day heat flow. Data from surrounding outcrops indicate that geothermal temperatures and hence the maturation level (based on depth of burial) since the Late Cretaceous has not reached the threshold for peak oil generation. Quaternary basalt less than 5 million years old covers the entire play area. The coupling of the favorable stratigraphic framework containing known coal seams and other type III hydrocarbon material with a favorable thermal history makes this a potential gas-producing area. The Orogrande basin in south-central New Mexico constitutes the second petroleum play; it encompasses an area of 8,800-9,000 square miles. Potential reservoirs are primarily Pennsylvanian and Permian, and secondarily Mississippian. Some structural traps may have formed as a result of Late Paleozoic and Laramide compression and folding, but the traps with greatest potential are probably the algal bioherms of Mississippian through Permian age. Rocks of this time interval are about 3,500 to 6,500 ft thick. There is also a wide range in the depths of occurrence of potential reservoirs, i.e. from 2,000 to 20,000 ft due to the widespread basin-and-range block-faulting. Factors which detract from the area's potential include high-angle normal faulting in Middle to Late Cenozoic time, some late-forming traps, and possible flushing by fresh water. South-central New Mexico is a frontier exploration province; it has been restrictive because nearly 50 percent of the play is on military land. Incentive is thus low with respect to geophysical surveying and drilling. The high percentage of shows of oil and gas, given the light drilling activity, might indicate that economic hydrocarbons are "in the system". Some stratigraphic similarities exist between this mostly shallow-water cratonic basin and the deeper-water, petroliferous Delaware basin in southeastern New Mexico. INTRODUCTION General Statement and Purpose This report has been prepared for the U.S. Geological Survey's national petroleum assessment. The area of investigation (province #92) roughly includes the southwestern quadrant of New Mexico excluding Hidalgo, Luna, southern Grant, and southwestern Dona Ana counties (fig 1). Information presented herein is the qualitative component of quantitative estimates in the national assessment. A brief geologic framework and history has been synthesized for each of the two plays identified in order that deductions can be drawn about causal relationships. Outcrop information has been taken from the state geologic map of New Mexico (Dane and Bachman, 1965) and subsurface well data from the Well History Control System (Petroleum Information Corp, 1984). Some regional stratigraphic information was obtained from Frazier and Schwimmer (1987). Due to the highly diverse geology of the assessment area, which covers two physiographic provinces (fig. 2), separate sections on the tectonic and depositional settings are included for each of the two play areas. Scope and Depth of Report This report is a condensation of two detailed play analyses by the author. Although many of the approximately one-thousand references in my data base were consulted, only the essential or most representative ones have been cited; these provide the basic rationale, with balance among disciplines, consistent with resource assessment on a national scale. Geophysical studies supporting assessment rationale, comparative hypotheses on tectonic evolution, local structural complexities, and stratigraphic nomenclature problems have been either treated superficially or omitted. PROVINCE #92 108° 106° UTAH

u.s. geological survey open file report/open-file report

The rationale for assessment of undiscovered, economically recoverable oil and gas in south-central New Mexico; a geologic overview and play analysis of two favorable areas