Oil and gas reservoir rocks of the Upper Devonian of West Virginia were deposited as shoreline sands along a coastal plain characterized by marine-dominant deltas (Catskill delta complex). These sandstones exhibit facies relationships between red beds and interbedded sandstones and shales that shift westward and eastward with offlap and onlap. Outcrop equivalents at Elkins, West Virginia, are correlated with the interval of Balltown to Fourth sands. Subsurface correlation indicates that maximum westward progradation occurred during deposition of the Gordon and Gordon Stray sands, and that transgression mainly characterized the younger Devonian sands of the Thirty-foot, Fifty-foot and Gantz.

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Regional correlations suggest that the Bradford-Balltown and Speechly (B sands of Pennsylvania Geological Survey) sands are better developed in northwestern Pennsylvania, whereas the Bayard through Gantz (D sands of Pennsylvania Geological Survey) sands are better developed in northern and central West Virginia, decreasing also in buildup toward southeastern West Virginia. The oil-bearing sandstones occur in strike trend (north-south) in north-central West Virginia connected by feeder channel sandstones with dip trends (east-west). The interpreted fluvial and tidal channels combine to represent distributary channels that supplied the sands to the barrier islands and delta front. Shoreline shifts, with regression and transgression of the ancient sea, caused corresponding changes in dis al-fan accumulations with time.

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