The Cranfield field, 16 miles east of Natchez, Mississippi, was discovered in October, 1943, by the California Company's National Gasoline Company of Louisiana No. 1. Though completed as a Wilcox "5,800-foot zone" oil well, gas-distillate sands were tested in the Tuscaloosa Basal sand horizon. The deep Ella G. Lees well No. 9 was completed in June, 1946, as a dry gas producer in the Paluxy formation.

The Basal Sand zone, by July, 1946, had produced approximately 4,250,000 barrels of oil. Total production from the Wilcox zone had been approximately 570,000 barrels.

Deepest penetration into the Cranfield structure encountered the Comanche Paluxy formation, Trinity group, and Washita-Fredericksburg unit. The Gulf series includes the

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Tuscaloosa formation, divisible into three members: the shale and marl facies of the Austin unit; and the Selma group. The Eocene groups, Midway, Wilcox, Claiborne, and Jackson, are represented by 6,650 feet of marine sediments.

The Basal Sand reservoir, containing 65 feet of oil and gas-distillate sand, has 320 feet of effective closure. A cycling project is planned for this reservoir. The mid-Wilcox "5,800-foot sand" has a maximum oil-bearing column of 40 feet and an average sand thickness of 11 feet.

The structure is an oval dome almost unbroken by faulting. Geographical location, among other factors, favors the movement of a deep-seated salt mass as mode of origin.

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