New approaches to Arkoma Basin gas exploration

Well-exposed surface structures, anticlines, and fault traps have been mapped by field geologists and by seismic crews. Drilling these structures has been a principal exploration method. At least 35 separate units from the upper Pennsylvanian to the Upper Ordovician have proved productive. With the hundreds of new deeper wells, it is now evident that the principal trap is stratigraphic, with structure secondary in many instances. Much of the gas production today is from sandstones that have previously been identified as lower Atokan. Evidence is now available to reassign these beds to the reinstated Winslow formation of the Morrow group. The Winslow formation is apparently of deltaic origin, the sediments having come from a predominantly northern source. Channels, with a generally N.-S. orientation were established outward into the basin.