Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology and Geography

Committee Chair

Timothy Carr

Committee Member

Dengliang Gao

Committee Member

Jamie Toro

Abstract

Abstract

Regional Correlation and Depositional History using Well Log and Core Data of the Geneseo-Burket from the Poseidon 8M Well, Westmoreland County PA, USA



Spencer Williams

Natural gas producers have invested billions of dollars in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to establish significant gas production from the Devonian Marcellus Shale and the deeper Ordovician Utica-Point Pleasant interval. In addition, commercial gas production has been reported from several other Devonian shale units in the Appalachian region, including the Rhinestreet, Levanna, and Geneseo-Burket. The Marcellus Shale is the largest natural gas play in the United States. The Marcellus is located directly under the Mahantango and Tully Limestone formations with a gross thickness of organic-rich shale in the subsurface from less than 10 feet in eastern Ohio to around 100 feet in north-central West Virginia and several hundred feet in central and northeastern Pennsylvania.

The Geneseo-Burket shale is similar to the Marcellus as one of the most highly radioactive and organic-rich of the Devonian shale units, yet little is known of the stratigraphic distribution, depositional history, and gas production. In the future, the Geneseo-Burket could be an explicit exploration target.

The main objective of this research is to examine the geologic characteristics of the Geneseo-Burket shale that will ultimately allow an assessment of the depositional history, the stratigraphic distribution across the basin and ultimately the potential hydrocarbon resources.

This study uses several well logs to conduct a petrophysical evaluation of the Geneseo-Burket shale, primarily located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The contact of the Geneseo-Burket shale is examined with the underlying Tully Limestone and the overlying contact with the Lodi Limestone and organic-lean Penn Yan Shale. These contacts are compared to a similar and more widely examined stratigraphy located deeper in the subsurface between the organic-rich Marcellus Shale and the overlying organic-lean Mahantango Shale and underlying Onondaga Limestone. In this research we find that in the Poseidon 8M well, the organic-rich Geneseo-Burket shale is similar in mineralogy to that of the Marcellus Shale, and may be the result of geochemical changes in the water column.

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