Catahoula Creek field, one of Mississippi's most significant discoveries, is located in Hancock and Pearl River Counties approximately 14 mi northwest of Bay St. Louis. The field was discovered in August 1981, with the successful completion and testing of the 1 Rhoda Lee Brown, Sec. 28, T6S, R15W, by Hunt Energy Corp./Saga Petroleum et al. Stabilized flow rates of 10 to 13 MMCFGD were encountered with pressure of 9,100 to 9,250 lb through 28/64 in. choke from Cotton Valley sands at a depth of 19,816 to 20,038 ft (6,039 to 6,100 m). A total of 114 ft net sand was perforated and acidized. Two additional field wells have been drilled (a western offset in Sec. 29, T6S, R15W,

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and a southern offset in Sec. 33, T6S, R15W) and are nearing completion. A northern offset in Sec. 18, T6S, R15W is presently being drilled and further development is planned.

The Catahoula Creek Cotton Valley sands are presently not definable by seismic methods, therefore, structure interpretation is based on the upper Smackover-Haynesville carbonate reflection approximately 950 ft (290 m) below the top of the Cotton Valley sand complex, or the middle Cotton Valley carbonate reflection approximately 1,000 ft (300 m) above the pay zones. The Catahoula Creek field is underlain by a high relief (900 to 1,000 ft; 275 to 300 m) northwest-southeast-trending salt-created closed structure at the upper Smackover-Haynesville carbonate level, bounded by major and minor down-to-the-coast faults. The structure at the middle Cotton Valley carbonate level is almost flat, and only the major faults seem to carry through up to this level, indicating a Late Jurassic time of tructural growth.

The Cotton Valley gas sands (Kimmeridgian) in the Catahoula Creek field were deposited in a shelf environment and can be numbered according to porosity zones from 1 through 11. At this stage in the field development only zones 1 through 7 have been perforated, but there are indications of hydrocarbons in all zones.

The reservoir rock exhibits matrix porosity of 4 to 18%, which is directly related to mineralogy, lithology, and diagenetic history. Matrix permeability is low, 0.3 > K > 0.01 md or less, but intense vertical fracturing is prominent, and fracture permeability has been measured in the range of 1 to 4.3 md, explaining the high flow rates while testing.

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