Abstract

The French Camp gas field is located in San Joaquin County, California, at the south edge of the City of Stockton. Nearby gas fields include the large (354 BCF) Lathrop field to the southwest, and the Stockton field to the north.

The field was discovered in March, 1967 with the completion of the Ferguson & Bosworth “Reynolds & Carver-West” 1, proj. Sec. 26, T1N/R6E, MDB&M. Over the next four years, two additional wells were completed and three dry holes were drilled within the general field area. An additional dry hole was drilled on the north flank of the structure in 1984. No further wells were drilled until late 1994, when the Bowman Road area, immediately southwest of the original productive area, was discovered.

The stratigraphic section of the field consists of about 3200′ of Pliocene-Miocene non-marine sands and clays unconformably overlying an estimated 9000′–10,000′ of Late Cretaceous marine sands and shales. Cretaceous sand bodies include the productive Starkey and Lathrop sands.

The field is located on the upthrown side and immediately south of the very large Stockton Arch reverse fault. It consists of three small areas of closure on the anticlinal trend developed on the upthrown side of the fault. Minor faulting separates productive areas of the field.

Production from the field began in late 1969 and continues from three wells. Total production through January, 1997 is about 8 BCF of 678–835 BTU gas.