Petroleum Potential of the Basin and Range Province

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Field Trip Guidebooks Series, Volume 113. The primary focus of this paper will be in east-central Nevada where the current economic fields are located. The Eagle Springs field in Railroad Valley was discovered by Shell oil in 1954. Since then the search for additional fields has been sporadic because of several factors: relatively small recoverable reserves, high transportation costs, restricted market and...
More Description

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Field Trip Guidebooks Series, Volume 113.

The primary focus of this paper will be in east-central Nevada where the current economic fields are located. The Eagle Springs field in Railroad Valley was discovered by Shell oil in 1954. Since then the search for additional fields has been sporadic because of several factors: relatively small recoverable reserves, high transportation costs, restricted market and elusive traps. However, three additional economic fields have been found and some recent oil discoveries could also be economic fields.

The Grant Canyon oil field currently has the largest estimated recoverable reserves of 13 million BO, however I believe that fields with over 100 million BO will be found in this province. This is based on finding the proper combination of areal extent, reservoir quality and oil column in one trap.