Utah releases thrust belt crude analysis

Jan. 19, 2006
Analysis of a crude oil sample from the Covenant field discovery well on the Central Utah Thrust Belt or Hingeline shows it to be 40.5° gravity with 0.48% sulfur, said the Utah Geological Survey.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 19 -- Analysis of a crude oil sample from the Covenant field discovery well on the Central Utah Thrust Belt or Hingeline shows it to be 40.5° gravity with 0.48% sulfur, said the Utah Geological Survey.

The oil's pour point is 2.2° F. The analysis by Baseline/DGSI, The Woodlands, Tex., posted on the survey's website, also contains viscosity, nitrogen, isotopic, and biomarker data from a sample collected by UGS on Aug. 31, 2004.

Wolverine Oil & Gas Co., a private Grand Rapids, Mich., independent, discovered the thrust belt's first producing oil field in May 2004. The 17-1 Kings Meadow Ranches, in 17-23s-1w, Sevier County, produced the oil from perforations at 6,215-25 ft in the Jurassic Navajo sandstone (OGJ, Jan. 17, 2005, p. 42).

The Covenant trap is an elongate, symmetric, northeast-trending anticline. The Navajo formation is repeated due to a detachment, but only the upper Navajo is productive. It contains a 487-ft oil column, the report noted.

Cumulative production as of Aug. 1, 2005, was 334,391 bbl of oil and 30,201 bbl of water.