Publications

Large benthic foraminifera (LBF) were major contributors to many Paleogene carbonate platforms around the world. These photosymbiotic foraminifera lived in warm, oligotrophic, shallow waters within the photic zone. Such Paleogene families as the nummulitids, alveolinids, and orthophragminids rose to prominence in the late Paleocene, thrived in the early and middle Eocene, and declined in...

The principal mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Resources Program (ERP) is to (1) understand the processes critical to the formation, accumulation, occurrence, and alteration of geologically based energy resources; (2) conduct scientifically robust assessments of those resources; and (3) study the impacts of energy resource occurrence and (or) their production and use...

No abstract available.

The U.S. Geological Survey recently assessed the potential for natural gas resources in the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin Province. The Marcellus Shale was assessed as a continuous gas accumulation using a methodology identical to that used in the assessment of shale and other continuous-type assessment units throughout the United States. This preliminary...

The Sud Province located in north-central Africa recently was assessed for undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids resources as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) World Oil and Gas Assessment. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS estimated mean volumes of 7.31 billion barrels of oil, 13.42 trillion cubic feet of natural...

New detrital zircon U–Pb age data obtained from various quartzite units of three spatially separated supracrustal packages in central and northern Madagascar, show that these units were deposited between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga and have similar aged provenances. The distribution of detrital zircon ages indicates an overwhelming contribution of sources with ages between 2.5 and 1.8 Ga. Possible...

Reserve growth is defined as the estimated increases in quantities of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids that have the potential to be added to remaining reserves in discovered accumulations through extension, revision, improved recovery efficiency, and additions of new pools or reservoirs. A new U.S. Geological Survey method was developed to assess the reserve-growth...

In his discussion of my article (Nelson, 2009), W. K. Camp takes issue with the concept that buoyancy is not the dominant force in forming and maintaining the distribution of gas in tight-gas accumulations (Camp, 2011). I will restrict my response to the issues he raised regarding buoyant versus nonbuoyant drive and to a few comments regarding water saturation and production. I claim...

No abstract available.

Using a geologic-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated an in-place oil shale resource of 906 billion barrels under Federal mineral rights, or 62 percent of the total oil shale in place, in the Green River and Washakie Basins, Wyoming. More than 67 percent of the total oil shale in-place resource, or 969 billion barrels, is under Federal surface management.

The U.S. Geological Survey has completed assessments of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the Jurassic Norphlet and Smackover formations of the onshore coastal plain and State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Norphlet Formation consists of sandstones and interbedded shales and siltstones deposited during a marine transgression. Along its northeast margin...

The recently completed assessment of in-place resources of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado; the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado; and the Greater Green River Basin Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah and their accompanying ArcGIS projects will form the foundation for estimating technically-recoverable resources in those areas. Different estimates will be made for...