Marble Falls Formation Fort Worth Basin

The marble falls sits between the barnett shale and the shallow conventional oil and gas formations that made the fort worth basin one of the largest producing oil and gas.

Marble falls formation fort worth basin.

The fort worth basin and bend arch lie entirely within north central texas covering an area of 54 000 square miles 140 000 km 2 the southern and eastern boundaries are defined by county lines that generally follow the ouachita structural front although a substantial portion of this structural feature is included near dallas the north boundary follows the texas oklahoma state line in the. The upper marble falls member carbonate platform back stepped towards the west southwest as smithwick outer shelf slope black shales drowned platform margin areas to the east. However the marble falls formation lying above the barnett may be the hot new play pumping life back into the fwb. But there is another oily horizontal opportunity opening up in the fort worth basin fwb.

On the western edge of the fort worth basin companies like atlas energy partners brigadier oil and gas and newark e p have began to develop the marble falls formation. It extends across an area of more than 15 000 square miles and comprises an assortment of facies that vary considerably across the region due to high. In most cases the marble falls was not the primary objective in drilling the well but the zone was completed when the primary. Specifically karst in the fort worth basin ellenburger group exhibits strong dip negative curvature low coherence and a shift to lower frequencies.

The modern marble falls play in the western edge of the fort worth basin is an exciting new unconventional oil and gas play. Marble falls and smithwick formation carbonates and shales were deposited on the western margin of the slowly subsiding fort worth basin of central texas during early pennsylvanian time. The marble falls formation and its lateral slope to basinal equivalent the smithwick formation were deposited during early pennsylvanian time morrowan atokan about 15 7 ma. Chronology of harland et al 1990 over western parts of the fort worth basin across the llano uplift and into the eastern kerr basin fig.

Prior to 2010 approximately 2 500 wells were completed in the marble falls formation. The marble falls of the fort worth basin is a very impure limestone that contains a remarkably large percentage of sand and or conglomerate in addition to shale. The true marble falls of the fort worth basin is a very impure calcareous rock that contains a remarkably large percentage of silica in the form of sponge spicules quartz sand and or. Chert probably allochthonous is not uncommon especially in the upper few dozen feet of the formation.

The early pennsylvanian marble falls formation in the fort worth basin fwb of north central texas was deposited in a broad carbonate ramp system during the initial stages of ouachita orogenesis.