Salt Creek Oil Field

File:Salt Creek Oil Field well.jpg

Dutch Well No. 1, 1908, in Salt Creek Oil Field<ref>Wegemann, Plate VII</ref>

The Salt Creek Oil Field is located in Natrona County, Wyoming.<ref>Wegemann, 1911, p. 37</ref> By 1970, more oil had been produced by this field than any other in the Rocky Mountains region and accounted for 20 percent of the total production in Wyoming.<ref name="Barlow and Haun, p. 147">Barlow and Haun, p. 147</ref>

Petroleum seeps in the area were known before 1880, but oil strikes near Lander led to claims by Schoonmaker and Cy Iba.<ref>Wegemann, pp.6-7</ref> In 1889 the first well to strike oil was drilled in the Shannon pool by Philip M. Shannon, president of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Company, who in 1895 built an oil refinery in Casper to process the oil.<ref>Wegemann, p. 7</ref> Dr. Porro, an Italian geologist working for the Dutch company Petroleum Maatschappij Salt Creek in 1906, located the Dutch No. 1 near a large oil seep south of the Shannon wells, which was drilled in 1908.<ref>Wegemann, 1911, pp. 72-73</ref> The "gusher" well reached an oil sand after drilling through Template:Convert of shale.<ref>Wegemann, 1911, p. 73</ref>

In 1915, a portion of the Teapot Dome was made Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 3.<ref>Wegemann, p. 9</ref>

Geology

The field is on an anticline with Template:Convert of closure, which formed in the Late Cretaceous or Early Tertiary.<ref name="Barlow and Haun, p. 147"/> The anticline has two distinct domes, the "Salt Creek Dome" to the north and the "Teapot Dome" to the south.<ref>wegemann, p. 54</ref> Production is from stratigraphic traps in the Lakota, Sundance and Tensleep formations plus two Frontier Formations, which is an offshore bar sandstone, all of which are interbedded with marine shales.<ref name="Barlow and Haun, p. 147"/> This second Frontier formation extends into the Teapot Dome to the south.<ref>Barlow and Haun, pp. 148-149</ref> The Frontier lies between the Mowry Shale and Niobrara Formation.<ref name="Barlow and Haun, p. 147"/>

• Salt Creek Oil Field Stratigraphy<ref>Wegemann, p. 13</ref>
  Salt Creek Oil Field Stratigraphy<ref>Wegemann, p. 13</ref>
• Shannon Oil Pool in Salt Creek Oil Field<ref>Wegemann, Plate III</ref>
  Shannon Oil Pool in Salt Creek Oil Field<ref>Wegemann, Plate III</ref>
• Geological section of Salt Creek Oil Field<ref name="EMJ1896">Template:Cite book</ref>
  Geological section of Salt Creek Oil Field<ref name="EMJ1896">Template:Cite book</ref>

Enhanced Oil Recovery

In the Salt Creek field, Enhanced Oil Recovery with CO₂ is used to increase oil production. The CO₂ is captured in a natural gas facility in the nearby LaBarge field.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2016, CO₂ was leaking from an abandoned well in the field and led to the temporary closure of a school.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bibliography

• Barlow, J.A. Jr., and Haun, J.D., 1970, Regional Stratigraphy of Frontier Formation and Relation to Salt Creek Field, Wyoming, in Geology of Giant Petroleum Fields, Halbouty, M.T., editor, AAPG Memoir 14, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
• Wegemann, C.H., 1911, The Lander and Salt Creek Oil Fields, Wyoming, US Dept. of the Interior USGS Bulletin 452, Washington: Government Printing Office. (Public domain ed.)
• Wegemann, C.H., 1918, The Salt Creek Oil Field, Wyoming, US Dept. of the Interior USGS Bulletin 670, Washington: Government Printing Office. (Public domain ed.)

External links

CO2 Enhanced oil recovery

• CO2 Puts New Fizz in Old Field