Publications

Well integrity monitoring has always been a critical component of subsurface oil and gas operations. Distributed fiber-optic sensing is an emerging technology that shows great promise for monitoring processes, both in boreholes and in other settings. In this study, we present a case study of using distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology to monitor a cemented and plugged well in...

The Shublik Formation (Middle to Upper Triassic) is a heterogeneous unit that is a major hydrocarbon source rock in northern Alaska and the largest known Triassic phosphate accumulation in the world. This formation, which occurs in the subsurface and crops out within the Arctic Alaska basin, was deposited on a gently sloping ramp along the northwestern Laurentian margin. In this study...

Organic petrology developed from coal petrology, and, in the 1960s, it began to be applied to the study of dispersed organic matter (DOM) in sedimentary rocks other than coal. Over the last few decades, the petrology of DOM has been used to characterize organic matter in sedimentary basins with an emphasis on fossil fuel resource exploration. Today, due to the global research shift on...

Executive Summary Climate is the primary driver of environmental change and is a key consideration in defining science priorities conducted across all mission areas in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Recognizing the importance of climate change to its future research agenda, the USGS’s Climate Science Steering Committee requested the development of a Climate Science Plan to identify...

Drill-bit metamorphism (DBM) is the process of thermal degradation of drilling fluid at the interface of the bit and rock due to the overheating of the bit. The heat generated by the drill when drilling into a rock formation promotes the generation of artificial hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gas, changing the composition of the gas. The objective of this work is to recognize and...

The middle Cretaceous greenhouse period experienced profound environmental change including episodes of enhanced global burial of organic carbon marked by carbon isotopic excursions (CIEs). However, the role and response of polar regions like the newly formed, partially enclosed Arctic Ocean Basin during middle Cretaceous carbon burial remains enigmatic. We present the first Arctic...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional and continuous resources of 294 million barrels of oil and 11 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Lewis Shale in the Southwestern Wyoming Province, Wyoming and Colorado.

Accurate reservoir evaluation requires reliable three-dimensional (3-D) geological models. This study conducted 3-D geological modeling for numerical flow simulation of the B1 sand gas hydrate reservoir at the Kuparuk State 7-11-12 pad, Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope. The model integrates well logs, core, and seismic data to address spatial heterogeneity in geological structures...

To further refine the use of solid bitumen reflectance (BRo in %) as a measurement of thermal maturity in source-rock reservoirs, we examined its relationship to other thermal proxies in the Bakken Formation. Comparisons included criteria from programmed temperature pyrolysis, gas chromatography (GC), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Thirty-two organic-rich samples...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 5.1 billion barrels of oil and 79.1 trillion cubic feet of gas in offshore East Africa and the Seychelles.

Conventional magnetofossils are the remains of magnetotactic bacteria and giant magnetofossils are the remains of iron biomineralizing organisms that have not yet been identified. We report the oldest robust conventional and giant magnetofossil records, ~97 Ma, from marine sediments drilled in Holland Park, Virginia, USA. The Holland Park core records the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary and...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 105.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Black Sea area.