ABSTRACT

Appleton Oil Field, located in Escambia County, Alabama, was discovered by Texaco in 1983 through the use of 2D seismic reflection data. The trapping mechanism in the field is a combination of structure and stratigraphy. The structural component is an anticline associated with a basement ridge. The stratigraphic component involves favorable Upper Jurassic Smackover reef and carbonate shoal lithofacies. Appleton is one of some 40 Smackover oil fields discovered in the updip basement ridge oil play of the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain over the past 25 years.

With the drilling of field development wells, the petroleum trap and reservoir in Appleton Field were found to be more complex than originally believed. Using 3D seismic reflection technology, the basement structure was interpreted as a composite of 3 local paleohighs, rather than a simple anticline. Characterization and modeling of the reservoir revealed that the reef lithofacies was the principal producing interval in the field and that the reef reservoir occurred on the crest as well as the flanks of the paleohighs. The Appleton Field case study demonstrates the importance of 3D seismic reflection technology for field development as well as in exploration for new Smackover fields. The acquisition of 3D seismic reflection data for other fields in the updip basement ridge play should result in the drilling of additional successful development wells in these fields.