Abstract
The Devonian-Mississippian STACK/SCOOP Play of the Oklahoma Anadarko Basin is a complex assemblage of tight carbonate and siliciclastic strata and an important oil and gas province. In the last decade, prolific drilling has demonstrated significant heterogeneity in the composition of oils produced from STACK/SCOOP reservoirs. This study discusses possible geoscientific explanations for the heterogeneity observed in produced oils and describes how source, maturation, and migration affect their composition.
Geochemical data from 136 produced oils across 12 counties from 4 producing reservoirs is reviewed. Calculated thermal maturity (Rc%) from alkylated polyaromatic compounds shows excellent agreement with oil thermal maturity increasing with increased depth. Oils produced from overpressured reservoirs exhibit a strong relationship between Rc% and Gas-Oil Ratio (GOR), while normal- to underpressured reservoirs exhibit GORs up to an order of magnitude higher at similar Rc%. Light hydrocarbons show that paraffinicity varies starkly with producing reservoir, suggesting compositional fractionation from diffusive migration through tight and argillaceous strata. Conversely, aromaticity varies geographically by Play Region, indicative of changing depositional environments and organic input across the basin. Isoprenoid and sesquiterpane biomarkers indicate all oils are generated by Type II or Type II/III mixed organic matter, but Springer Group reservoirs are charged by a highly argillaceous, non-Woodford source.
Introduction
The Anadarko Basin is the deepest sedimentary basin in the cratonic interior of the North America with as much as 40,000 feet of Paleozoic sediments (Johnson, 1989). The Anadarko is an asymmetric basin with the deepest sediments bound against the Amarillo-Wichita Uplift to the southwest. The basin is elongated along its west-northwest axis and bound by the Nemaha Ridge to the east and the Anadarko shelf to the west and north.
In the last decade, drilling of Devonian-Mississippian strata along the margins of the basin have delineated one the continent's most successful petroleum resource plays. These areas are colloquially referred to as the Sooner Trend of the Anadarko Basin in Canadian and Kingfisher Counties (STACK) and the South-Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP). The most commonly targeted reservoirs include the Woodford Shale, the Mississippian Group (Osage, Meramec, Chester, and Sycamore formations), and the Springer Group. These reservoirs often have very low permeabilities and maintain an inverted oil column across most of the Play Regions.
