By Jonathan DuHamel | Tucson Citizen
Shale oil and gas discoveries in the U.S. are quickly making us less dependent on OPEC for our energy supplies. How does Arizona fit into the picture? The Arizona Geological Survey has recently begun an assessment of Arizona’s potential contribution with a new report:
Rauzi, S.L. and Spencer, J.E., 2013, A Brief Overview of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale in Northeastern Arizona and its Hydrocarbon Potential. Arizona Geological Survey Open-File Report, OFR-13-08, 8 p. (download for free here, there also is a 100-second-long video here).
An AZGS press release gives an overview:
New developments in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracture technology are transforming some marginal shale oil and shale gas deposits into economic oil and gas targets. In the Southwestern U.S., the Cretaceous Mancos Shale is part of the stratigraphic sequence in both the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona. [See map at bottom of this post] It has been the source of much oil and gas in the San Juan Basin, with renewed drilling and hydrofracturing now underway, but has received little attention in Arizona where it underlies the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations. In light of this discrepancy, the Arizona Geological Survey reexamined existing well data and rock unit descriptions for the Mancos Shale in northern Arizona.
