Abstract: Geology of the James Limestone, Fairway Field, East Texas

By

Robert T. Terriere

The Fairway Field of Anderson and Henderson Counties, Texas, is a major oil field in a reef and reef-associated facies of the Lower Cretaceous James Limestone. This is an unusually good example of a subsurface reef, undolomitized and with a variety of depositional textures well preserved, though the trap itself is partly structural.

From the texture and fossil content recognizable in cores it is possible to classify the limestone into several types. Maps of the distribution of these rock types during successive stages of reef development show that the reef proper, characterized by corals, stromatoporoids, algae, and rudists, grew initially in the northwest part of the field. Subsequently this center of growth spread over a larger area and satellite reefs appeared in the south and west. A distinctive facies characterized by large bivalves occupied much of the area between the reefs. The south-central part of the area of the present field was the site of persistent accumulation of carbonate sand and gravel. Carbonate muds and muddy sands were the dominant sediments elsewhere.

Porosity and permeability are present in all the limestone types and are slightly higher, on the average, in some reef associated limestones than in the reef proper. The porosity is mostly secondary, though initial porosity has partly controlled leaching.

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