ANALYSIS OF OIL-BEARING CRETACEOUS SANDSTONE HYDROCARBON RESERVOIRS, EXCLUSIVE OF THE DAKOTA SANDSTONE, ON THE JICARILLA APACHE INDIAN RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO

A goal of the Mesaverde project was to better define the depositional system of the Mesaverde in hopes that it would provide insight to new or by-passed targets for oil exploration. The new, detailed studies of the Mesaverde give us a better understanding of the lateral variability in depositional environments and facies. Recognition of this lateral variability and establishment of the criteria for separating deltaic, strandplain-barrier, and estuarine deposits from each other permit development of better hydrocarbon exploration models, because the sandstone geometry differs in each depositional system. Although these insights will provide better exploration models for gas exploration, it does not appear that they will be instrumental in finding more oil. Oil in the Mesaverde Group is produced from isolated fields on the Chaco slope; only a few wells define each field. Production is from sandstone beds in the upper part of the Point Lookout Sandstone or from individual fluvial channel sandstones in the Menefee. Stratigraphic traps rather than structural traps are more important. Source of the oil in the Menefee and Point Lookout may be from interbedded organic-rich mudstones or coals rather than from the Lewis Shale. The Lewis Shale appears to contain more type III organic matter and, hence, should produce mainly gas. Outcrop studies have not documented oil staining that might point to past oil migration through the sandstones of the Mesaverde. The lack of oil production may be related to the following: (1) lack of abundant organic matter of the type I or II variety in the Lewis Shale needed to produce oil, (2) ineffective migration pathways due to discontinuities in sandstone reservoir geometries, (3) cementation or early formation of gas prior to oil generation that reduced effective permeabilities and served as barriers to updip migration of oil, or (4) erosion of oilbearing reservoirs from the southern part of the basin. Any new production should mimic that of the past, i.e. be confined to small fields in isolated sandstone beds