By the USGS Bossier Formation Assessment Team: Stanley T. Paxton, Janet K. Pitman, Scott A. Kinney, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Ofori N. Pearson, Katherine J. Whidden, Russell F. Dubiel, Christopher J. Schenk, Lauri A. Burke, Timothy R. Klett, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Tracey J. Mercier, Seth S. Haines, Brian A. Varela, Phuong A. Le, Thomas M. Finn, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Sarah J. Hawkins, Kristen R. Marra and Marilyn E. Tennyson
Using a geology-based method, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, gas and natural gas liquids in the Upper Jurassic Bossier Formation — and equivalent units — beneath the Gulf Coast from south Texas to the Florida Panhandle, onshore and in State waters: a mean of 2.9 billion barrels of conventional oil and 108.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The four assessment units (AUs) of the Bossier Formation. USGS.
The geology
The Bossier Formation is part of the Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System.
- Source rocks: mudstones of the Upper Jurassic Smackover, Haynesville and Bossier Formations, which charge both conventional reservoirs (Montgomery 1993a, 1993b, 2001; Mancini and others, 2006; Goddard and others, 2008) and continuous ones (Hammes and Frébourg, 2012; Cicero and Steinhoff, 2013).
- Conventional reservoirs: sandstones laid down in marginal marine, shelf, slope and basin-floor settings.
- Continuous reservoirs: Bossier mudstones, basinward of the Bossier and Cotton Valley Group sandstones.
Four assessment units
Three of the four were assessed. The two conventional units partly overlap the continuous ones.
| AU | Defined by |
|---|---|
| Bossier Western Shelf Sandstone Gas | faults on the north and west, and rock types extending east into the East Texas Basin; reservoirs change from river-delta deposits in the west to shelf, slope and basin-floor fans in the east (Montgomery, 2001) |
| Bossier Eastern Shelf Sandstone Gas and Oil | faults on the northeast, and rock types reaching southwest to the continental shelf-break and beyond; reservoirs change from river-delta and coastal deposits in the east to fans in the southwest |
| Bossier Shale Continuous Gas | mudstones interbedded with and basinward of the Bossier and Cotton Valley sandstones, south to the shelf-break |
| Upper Jurassic Downdip Continuous Gas | the Bossier south of the shelf-break, lumped with Smackover and Haynesville mudstones — not assessed |
The estimates
For the two conventional and one continuous unit, the mean estimates are:
- Oil: 2,854 million barrels — about 2.9 billion (F95–F5 range 1,193 to 5,147).
- Gas: 108,587 billion cubic feet — about 108.6 trillion cubic feet (37,162 to 223,472).
- Natural gas liquids: 1,052 million barrels (424 to 2,009).
F95 means a 95-percent chance of at least that much; F5, a 5-percent chance.
| AU | Oil, mean (million barrels) | Gas, mean (billion cubic feet) |
|---|---|---|
| Bossier Shale Continuous Gas | — | 51,924 |
| Eastern Shelf Sandstone Gas and Oil | 2,854 | 49,331 in gas fields, plus 3,990 with the oil |
| Western Shelf Sandstone Gas | — | 3,342 |
More: USGS Energy Resources Program.
Sources
Based on Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Bossier Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2016, by the Bossier Formation Assessment Team, USGS Fact Sheet 2017–3015, U.S. Geological Survey; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The map, the team and the results by assessment unit are taken from the fact sheet's PDF, which the import had left out.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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