Although Waveland field was discovered in 1965, only in the last few years has development changed this once insignificant field into a 24,000-acre (9,600 ha.) producing area flowing nearly 4 Bcf of gas per month. Part of the reason for the field's unusual growth rate is found in a host of reservoir disguises related to carbonate facies, diagenesis, and fracturing.

All of the field wells to date have penetrated a uniform sequence of back-reef and lagoonal deposits in the Mooringsport (lower Albian) producing interval. Miliolid and pellet

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packstones, mollusk and echinoid mudstones, and orbitolinid packstones and grainstones make up this sequence. The producible reservoir beds are curiously correlative only to the orbitolinid facies, despite the fact that log analyses and standard core analyses do not discriminate between facies with regard to reservoir properties.

Petrographic studies and special core analyses have identified a unique style of diagenetic recrystallization which yields water-free gas production from high-water saturation reservoirs. However, in updip parts of the field where porosity and permeability have been enhanced by solution diagenesis, both gas and water are produced in subeconomic proportions.

The complex association of a discretely layered reservoir, which demonstrates untraditional fluid dynamics within layers, is further complicated by a dual system of vertical fractures. This fracture system, which is probably a function of gulfward subsidence coincident with drape across the Hancock ridge, has been demonstrated to be an important factor controlling the prolonged and prolific production at Waveland field.

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