Petroleum Geology of the Utica/Point Pleasant Play in Washington County, Ohio

Abstract

The early Late Ordovician interval, known as the Utica-Point Pleasant play, in southeastern Ohio is poorly constrained due to limited data sets. A previous study by the Appalachian Basin Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium and partners evaluated the interval across the Appalachian Basin using five cores. For this study, unpublished data from well Farley 1305-H, located in Washington County, Ohio, was used to better evaluate the Utica-Point Pleasant play in southeastern Ohio. The data include geophysical logs, Rock-Eval pyrolysis, mineralogy, triaxial testing, gas desorption, and porosity data. The Point Pleasant Formation, in regards to well Farley 1305-H and proximal area, has sufficient TOC (avg. 2.4 wt. %), gas-filled porosity (avg. 4.75 %), mineralogy (normalized clay value of 32%), and geomechanical properties to be a successful unconventional play. Geophysical logs correlate the formation's high organic content and porosity. Calculations of % Ro values (avg. 1.6) are parallel to gas composition data, which indicates that a good portion of gas in place is wet and dry. The Utica Shale was determined to be a poor unconventional reservoir in regards to well Farley 1305-H, lacking conducive TOC [less than] 1 wt. %), gas-filled porosity ([less than] 2 %), mineralogy (normalized clay value of 49 %), and geomechanical properties.