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USGS National and Global Oil and Gas Assessment Project - Williston Basin, Lower Paleozoic Conventional Assessment Unit Boundaries and Assessment Input Data Forms

April 29, 2021

This data release contains the boundaries of assessment units and input data for the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Lower Paleozoic of the Williston Basin province in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Assessment Unit is the fundamental unit used in the National Assessment Project for the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources. The Assessment Unit is defined within the context of the higher-level Total Petroleum System. The Assessment Unit is shown herein as a geographic boundary interpreted, defined, and mapped by the geologist responsible for the province and incorporates a set of known or postulated oil and (or) gas accumulations sharing similar geologic, geographic, and temporal properties within the Total Petroleum System, such as source rock, timing, migration pathways, trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon type. The Assessment Unit boundary is defined geologically as the limits of the geologic elements that define the Assessment Unit, such as limits of reservoir rock, geologic structures, source rock, and seal lithologies. The only exceptions to this are Assessment Units that border the Federal-State water boundary. In these cases, the Federal-State water boundary forms part of the Assessment Unit boundary. Methodology of assessments are documented in USGS Data Series 547 for continuous assessments (https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/547) and USGS DDS69-D, Chapter 21 for conventional assessments (https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-d/REPORTS/69_D_CH_21.pdf). See supplemental information for a detailed list of files included this data release.

Publication Year 2021
Title USGS National and Global Oil and Gas Assessment Project - Williston Basin, Lower Paleozoic Conventional Assessment Unit Boundaries and Assessment Input Data Forms
DOI 10.5066/P9IVGB76
Authors Christopher J Schenk
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Central Energy Resources Science Center