In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

229 ␥ thin, discontinuous, and of low grade. Recent exploration, however, indicates that the grade and continuity of coal beds increase in the subsurface thus enhancing the potential for a coal-bed gas industry. Uranium was discovered in the 1950s and major production continued into the 1980s, but falling prices forced a total shutdown by 1995. Recent price increases, however, have revived the industry and several mines have either reopened or are preparing to reopen. Oil and Gas Most of the developed energy resources in the northern Gulf of Mexico basin are in thick deltaic and delta-front reservoirs of Tertiary age, although significant oil and gas resources are also in Cretaceous and Jurassic sandstones and carbonates (Fig. 14.2). The generation, migration, and trapping of hydrocarbons, as well as much of the depositional history of the basin, have been greatly influenced by the Jurassic Louann salt (Fig. 14.3). Hydrocarbons generated in the major source rocks of the Upper Jurassic, Upper Cretaceous, and lower Tertiary migrated primarily along salt structures and faults, but also along lithologic contacts and bedding planes, into a variety of structural and stratigraphic traps. Early development of the oil and gas resources concentrated on the onshore salt diapirs and gradually moved offshore. Recently, much effort has gone into developing techniques for sub-salt seismic imaging and deepwater drilling and development as the Conventional hydrocarbon resources alone make the Gulf of Mexico basin one of the most energy-rich basins of the world, with approximately 9% of the known recovery of petroleum liquids and 11% of the known recovery of natural gas in the world (Nehring 1991). In addition to these resources, there are significant accumulations of uranium, coal, coal-bed gas, and gas hydrates in the northern part of the basin (Fig. 14.1). This brief discussion will summarize some of the available published data and describe the significance of the total resources of all but the potential gas hydrate resources, which are the subject of Hutchinson et al. (chapter 15 in this volume). Onshore oil and gas production and assessment data are generally of the same vintage so that they might be compared. The same is true for the offshore data, though these are somewhat more recent. Many of the production numbers presented here are given in barrels of oil equivalent. For the purposes of this discussion, 6 billion cubic feet of gas = 1 million barrels of oil equivalent. Few aspects of either the natural or cultural environment of the region are not affected by the exploration and development of its vast energy resources. The more than 4000 significant oil and gas fields (those with more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent) and 800,000 drilled wells in the northern part of the basin, along with the necessary infrastructure and support facilities, constitute a major portion of the regional economy as they have for much of the past century. Although coal has been mined for many years in Texas and Louisiana, it has never been a large industry primarily because the beds are generally 14 Energy Resources of the Northern Gulf of Mexico Basin A. Curtis Huffman Jr., Peter D. Warwick, and Warren I. Finch 230 ~ Huffman, Warwick, and Finch main exploration focus continues to move deeper and farther offshore. For 25 years following the first significant discovery of oil and gas at Corsicana, Texas, in 1895, only 2 or 3 significant discoveries a year were made because of the lack of obvious surface structures in the Gulf of Mexico basin. The rate of discovery accelerated rapidly, however, with the introduction of geophysical prospecting techniques in the 1920s. It reached a peak in the 1950s with more than 100 discoveries a year (Nehring 1991). Since then, the annual discovery rate has averaged about 80. Nehring (1991) emphasized the uniqueness of the Gulf of Mexico basin with respect to the distribution of petroleum resources by field size. He pointed out that, whereas in other major petroleum provinces of the world resources are typically highly concentrated in a small number of giant fields (those with a known recovery of 500 million barrels of oil equivalent or more) or super-giant fields (those with a known recovery of 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent or more), only about 45% of the total in the Gulf of Mexico basin resides in giant or super-giant fields. Of the remaining resources, about 37% are in 560 large fields (fields with a known recovery of 50 to 500 million barrels...

Share