Publications

The most recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Appalachian basin was completed in 2002 (Milici and others, 2003). This assessment was based on the total petroleum system (TPS), a concept introduced by Magoon and Dow (1994) and developed during subsequent studies such as those by the U.S. Geological Survey World Energy Assessment Team...

Fossil fuels from the Appalachian basin region have been major contributors to the Nation’s energy needs over much of the last three centuries. Early records indicate that Appalachian coal was first mined in the middle 1700s (Virginia and Pennsylvania) and was used sparingly to fuel colonial settlements and, later, a fledgling industrial-based economy along the eastern seaboard of the...

This chapter B.1 of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper 1708 provides index maps for many of the studies described in other chapters of the report. Scientists of the USGS and State geological surveys studied coal and petroleum resources in the central and southern Appalachian structural basins. In the southern Appalachian basin, studies focused on the coal-bearing parts of...

Fossil fuels from the Appalachian basin region have been major contributors to the Nation’s energy supplies over much of the last three centuries. Appalachian coal and petroleum resources are still available in sufficient quantities to contribute significantly to fulfilling the Nation’s energy needs. Although both conventional oil and gas continue to be produced in the Appalachian basin...

No abstract available.

This study presents high-resolution gas chromatograms of oils and molecular and isotopic analyses of oil-associated gases from 17 wells producing in the Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician Knox Group, the Middle and Upper Ordovician Stones River Group, and the Upper Ordovician Trenton Limestone in the Cumberland overthrust sheet. The wells are located in the Ben Hur and Rose Hill fields...

The Utica-Lower Paleozoic Total Petroleum System (TPS) in the Appalachian Basin Province is named for the Upper Ordovician Utica Shale, which is the source rock, and for multiple lower Paleozoic sandstone and carbonate units that are the important reservoirs. The total organic carbon (TOC) values for the Utica Shale are usually greater than 1 weight percent. TOC values ranging from 2 to...

A 130-foot-thick Cambrian black shale sampled from a core between 11,150 and 11,195 feet in the Exxon No. 1 Smith well in Wayne County, W. Va., has been identified as a good to very good source rock. The black shale is located in the Middle Cambrian Rogersville Shale of the Conasauga Group. Total organic carbon (TOC) values of four samples that range from 1.2 to 4.4 weight percent...

This report presents the results of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of the technically recoverable undiscovered natural gas resources in Devonian shale in the Appalachian Basin Petroleum Province of the eastern United States. These results are part of the USGS assessment in 2002 of the technically recoverable undiscovered oil and gas resources of the province. This report does...

The geochemical processes that control the distribution of hydrocarbons in the regional accumulation of natural gas and crude oil in reservoirs of Early Silurian age in the central Appalachian basin are not well understood. Gas and oil samples from 14 wells along a down-dip transect through the accumulation in northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania were analyzed for molecular...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded drilling of a borehole (39.33889°N., 80.26542°W.) to evaluate the potential of enhanced coalbed-methane production from unminable Pennsylvanian coal beds at the Meadowfill Landfill near Bridgeport, Harrison County, W. Va. The drilling commenced on June 17, 2004, and was completed on July 1, 2004. The total depth of the borehole was 1,081...

The Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory funded drilling of a borehole (39.64378°N., 80.04376°W.) to evaluate the potential for coalbed-methane and carbon-dioxide sequestration at Mylan Park, a public park in Monongalia County, W. Va. The total depth of the borehole was 2,525 feet (ft) and contained 1,483.41 ft of Pennsylvanian coal-bearing strata, 739.67 ft of...