Diagenesis and reservoir quality of the Upper Mississippian Aux Vases Sandstone, Illinois Basin

Conventional reservoir quality data for more than 300 wells provided by the Illinois and Indiana state geological surveys were analyzed to determine the factors governing porosity and permeability in the Upper Mississippian Aux Vases Sandstone, an important hydrocarbon-producing unit in the Illinois Basin. In addition, approximately 150 samples of the Aux Vases Sandstone were collected for mineralogical and geochemical analysis to reconstruct the burial and diagenetic history and to establish the timing of diagenesis relative to the entrapment of hydrocarbons. One aspect of the study involved linking inorganic and organic diagenesis to late Paleozoic tectonism and hydrothermal fluid-flow events in the region.