Correcting Bottom-Hole Temperatures in the Denver Basin: Colorado and Nebraska

We have examined the problem of bottom-hole temperatures (BHTs) in the Colorado and Nebraska portions of the Denver Basin with the use of three existing correction schemes; the Forster Correction, the Harrison Correction, and the Kehle Correction. We integrated the results of these three equations with the results of equilibrium temperatures to quantify which existing correction works best with Denver Basin stratigraphy. Of the three existing corrections, we determined that the Forster Correction has the least amount of area between curves for the integration, thus it is the best correction. Since we had the equilibrium data, we created a tailored correction scheme for the Denver Basin: Temperature Correction Factor (Tcf) = 0.0124x + 7.8825.