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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

West Texas Geological Society

Abstract


TRANSACTIONS – SOUTHWEST SECTION AAPG, 1992
Pages 1-10

Heluma and King Mountain Fields: Backthrusted Structures Upton County, Texas

John M. Turmelle

Abstract

Heluma Field was discovered and initially developed in 1956 as a four well Ellenburger pool with marginal Devonian reserves uphole. For seventeen years it was reasonable to map the field as a tilted fault block at the Ellenburger level.

In 1973, a field extension well proved that the fault which bounded the field was not a down-to-the-east high angle reverse but rather a low-angle backthrust which overrides and does not cut the Ellenburger. The Devonian came in 500′ structurally high to the older wells and has since produced six million barrels of oil. Fourteen additional Ellenburger producers were drilled beneath the backthrust. Present spacing shows that some wells were structurally low due to drilling into Ordovician-aged sinkholes developed on the Ellenburger surface.

King Mountain Field is a long narrow anticline which has produced five and one-half million barrels of oil from the Ellenburger. Developed in the late 1950’s, it has the same style of backthrusting as Heluma Field but with a lesser throw.


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