The Lockport Dolomite has yielded commercial quantities of petroleum of nearly 100 years and continues to be an exploration target in eastern Kentucky. Reservoirs are largely confined to porous buildups and to erosional truncation along the Cincinnati arch. These stratigraphic traps developed under the influence of (1) sea level fluctuations, which controlled the development of reefal, skeletal-bank, and ooid-shoal facies across the carbonate shelf, (2) relict topographic highs in the underlying Keefer Sandstone and in the lower Lockport, which provided optimum sites for deposition of boundstones and grainstones, and (3) syndepositional movement of fault blocks, which localized skeletal buildups.

Isopach thicks along the western edge of the study area represent erosional remnants beneath the Middle to Upper Devonian unconformity, rather than carbonate buildups. Porosity originated during subaerial weathering in the Devonian, and reservoirs were capped by the impermeable organic-rich Ohio Shale. Away from the unconformity, patch reefs and skeletal banks can be identified by thicks on isopach maps, by their clean gamma-ray signature, and by a relatively high log porosity. The distribution of buildups generally parallels earlier topographic highs or basement faults. Secondary porosity (intercrystalline dolomite and moldic vuggy) formed in the eogenetic zone during lowered sea level, and impermeable lagoonal and tidal-flat carbonates serve as seals. Because of the stacking of poro s Lockport units, eastern Kentucky has good potential for multiple pay zones.