Size-frequency analysis of petroleum accumulations in selected United States plays: potential analogues for frontier areas

This report presents the petroleum accumulation size-frequency relationships of selected mature plays assessed in the U.S. Geological Survey's 1995 National Assessment of Oil and Gas Resources. The plays provide assessors with potential analogue models from which to estimate the numbers of undiscovered accumulations in medium and smaller size categories. Each play selected was required to have at least 50 discovered accumulations. Discovered accumulations plus the mean number of undiscovered accumulations equals the total accumulations assessed at the play level. There were 36 plays that met the criteria for oil accumulations and 25 plays that met the criteria for gas accumulations. Other properties of the plays such as primary trap type, lithology, depth, and hydrocarbon characteristics are also provided to assist the geologist in choosing an appropriate analogue. The text explains how the analogue size-frequency relationships can be used to estimate the number of small and medium size accumulations for frontier-area plays or partially explored plays in high cost areas. Although this document has been written in support of the Alaska North Slope Assessment, the basic size?frequency relationships provided are applicable elsewhere.