Geologic History and Reservoir Development in the Shoebar Field Area, Lea County, New Mexico

Abstract Production in the Shoebar Field area comes from many different types of reservoirs in rocks ranging in age from the Silurian up through and including the Permian Abo Formation. A complex structural setting in this area created a Paleozoic stratigraphy that is difficult to interpret with seismic data alone. The section from the upper Mississippian Chester through the upper Atoka Formations is further complicated by inter-and intra-formational unconformities, and differential movement along major faults. Faults and unconformities were important to the development of reservoirs throughout the section because tectonic movement and exposure events associated with those surfaces affected reservoir distribution, quality, and locally, erosion. Several formations in the area, including the Wristen, Chester, Atoka, Strawn and lower Wolfcamp, are key targets because of recent exploratory successes or because they offer new reserve development potential. Reservoirs in each of these formations were developed under unique depositional conditions, and prediction of ideal reservoir conditions in these rocks may be facilitated through coordinated lithologic correlations and seismic interpretation. Lithologic data are critical to understanding the abrupt changes that affect the stratigraphy in the area, and to preventing mis-correlations that could inhibit optimum evaluation of prospective targets in a well.