Revisiting the Great basin
It has taken almost 30 years (since the giant Anschutz Ranch field discovery in 1975) to revisit Great basin Hingeline geology—leading to another giant oil and gas discovery in 2004. This historic discovery came about due to a visionary and bold approach to exploration by an independent. Congratulations to Floyd Mouton and Michael Pinnell for their above-the-crowd thinking on the geological potential of the eastern edge (Hingeline) of the Great basin and persuading an independent to drill and test the play concept (OGJ, Jan. 17, 2005, p. 42).
Bravo, Wolverine Gas & Oil Co., for taking such a bold step to test this new play and for not following the pack mentality about this low-angle, thrust-faulted play. Many geopundits once wrote off this type of thin-skin thrust play in the Great basin, closing doors to exploration in this very hydrocarbon-rich Paleozoic basin of the Lower-48 states. Thanks to a few die-hards, the Great basin is still alive.
This basin perhaps generated trillions of barrels of liquid hydrocarbon from extremely rich Mississippian shale and other source rocks, during the long geologic time frame extending from Upper Mesozoic through Lower Tertiary. And that has perhaps provided similar opportunity, like giant accumulations found in the Arabian and Iranian Paleozoic and Mesozoic provinces, for hydrocarbon generation, migration, and accumulation in several reservoir rocks (clastic and carbonate) extending from Cambro-Ordovician to Jurassic.
Wolverine has provided explorers a proven model of success in this Paleozoic basin. I hope this will generate more exploration ideas and stimulate new efforts in the basin.
S.K. Bhattacharjee
Sita Oil Exploration House Inc.
Houston
