The Miocene Trend of Calhoun and Matagorda Counties, Texas

ABSTRACT The increasingly critical shortage of natural gas in the United States has created a great demand for intrastate gas, which is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission. The Miocene Trend in Texas offers the small company or the independent operator the exploratory potential to find that gas to supply our growing market. In the past the Miocene Trend of Texas has not been explored extensively for three reasons, which are: (1) Surface locations occur within the inland bay of the Big Ranch area on the Gulf Coast of Texas; The production has been primarily dry gas; and There has been a lack of marketing facilities for the gas. In recent years numbers (2) and (3) have been overcome by the growing demand for natural gas plus the increased marketing facilities. With regard to the inland bay Big Ranch area, little can be done to overcome some of the well location problems connected with operations within this trend. But regardless of these problems, there are a few places remaining on the Texas Gulf Coast where one can explore for multiple gas and oil reservoirs at depths above 6,500 feet.