ABSTRACT

Port Acres and Port Arthur Gas Distillate Fields are located immediately west of the town of Port Arthur, Jefferson County, Texas, along the downdip portion of the Frio producing sand trend and on a semi-regional positive feature, generally known as the Vicksburg Platform. Port Acres is a classic example of a field producing from a stratigraphic trap while Port Arthur is an equally classic example of a field producing from an anticlinal closure developed on the downthrown side of a contemporaneous fault.

Highlights of the prediscovery exploration between 1944 and 1957 are summarized. Two structural maps and two cross sections have been prepared to show the interrelationship of structure, stratigraphy and accumulation. A brief geological history describes the occurence of the lower Hackberry sand section as a delta deposited at the mouth of an ancient stream and influenced first by the rise of Spindletop salt dome to the northwest and later by the growth of Port Neches salt dome to the northeast.

Statistics on the fields show that Port Acres covers 3200 acres on which 54 wells have been successfully completed and Port Arthur covers approximately 1700 acres on which 14 wells have been completed. Reserve estimates for both fields indicate 400 to 500 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 20 to 25 million barrels of distillate.

It is concluded that other sands of the lower Hackberry section should be found productive at a proper pinch out point north and east of Port Acres and that other lower Hackberry deltas may be expected somewhere else across the eroded surface of the Vicksburg Platform.