Abstract

The discovery of Abo gas production from continental Permian red beds in north-central Chaves County, New Mexico, resulted in a flurry of drilling activity. Yates Petroleum Corporation re-entered the Honolulu #1 McConkey, an Ellenburger dry hole and completed it from Abo perforations for an initial potential of 2,551 MCFGPD (thousand cubic feet of gas per day) and 1 BCPD (barrel of condensate per day). Although this discovery was completed in September of 1977, drilling continued at a slow pace until federal regulations designated the Abo Formation as “tight gas sands,” in 1980. This stimulated drilling activity to the extent that as of August, 1983, almost 850 wells had been drilled, with a high success ratio.

Lee named the Abo Formation for sandstone exposures in Abo Canyon, at the south end of the Manzano Mountains, southeast of Albuquerque. Needham and Bates re-described the Abo and named a type section of exposures in Socorro and Torrance counties and considered it to be of continental origin because of cross-bedding, plant remains, and other characteristics.

The Abo is generally believed to be Wolfcampian in age; however, in limited areas the upper portion of the Abo is Leonardian. This is based partly on fossils and also on the fact that the Abo locally grades into the overlying Yeso.

The Pedernal Land Mass which lies to the north and west of the Pecos Slope area provided most of the sediments as siltstones, sandstones, mudstones, and shales. The sandstones are characteristically arkosic in most areas. These Abo sediments were deposited under fluvial-deltaic conditions.