Hugoton Gas Field

Summary

Hugoton Gas Field is a large natural gas field in the U.S. states of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Its name is derived from the town of Hugoton, Kansas, near which the Hugoton Field was first discovered.

Hugoton and Panhandle Fields[1]

History edit

Natural gas in the Hugoton area was first discovered in 1922 in the Boles #1 well, in Seward County, two miles west of Liberal.[2] The well was drilled in 1919 to a depth of 2,919 feet by the Defenders Petroleum and Traders Oil and Gas Company, but was shut in for three years because it did not find oil. In 1922 the well was completed as a gas well, but there was little demand for natural gas in the area and it was years before another gas well was drilled in the field.[3]

In 1927, gas was discovered at the Independent Oil and Gas Company's Crawford No. 1,[4][2] about 2,600 feet (790 meters) below the surface southwest of Hugoton, Kansas, in Stevens County. This is now considered the center of the Hugoton Field. By the end of 1928, five wells had been drilled in the field and the first pipeline was transporting gas to local markets. In 1929, Argus Pipe Line Company started construction of a pipeline to furnish gas to Dodge City, Kansas. Construction of major pipelines in the 1930s encouraged further drilling in the area. In 1977, gas was discovered at the Brown and Woolsey in the M. MAUNE, Well 1.[2]

In 2007, the Hugoton gas area produced 358 billion cubic feet of gas, making it the 5th largest source of natural gas in the United States.[5]

Gas production by year [2]
Year Production (mcf) Wells Cumulative (mcf)
2015 110,193,159 7649 18,507,153,060
2016 98,405,418 7579 18,605,558,478
2017 91,796,374 7498 18,697,354,852
2018 85,872,232 7439 18,783,227,084
2019 81,029,876 7361 18,864,256,960
2020 76,725,624 7279 18,940,982,584
2021 35,424,523 7148 18,976,407,107

Helium edit

The natural gas in the Hugoton field of Kansas and Oklahoma, plus the Panhandle Field of Texas, contains unusually high concentrations of helium, from 0.3% to 1.9%. Because of the large size of these fields, they contain the largest reserves of helium in the United States. Helium is separated out as a byproduct from natural gas, from the Hugoton field, the Panhandle field in Texas, the Greenwood field in Kansas, and the Keyes field in Oklahoma.[6] Much of the recovered helium is piped to the National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, where it is stored underground in geologic formations for future use.

Geology edit

The Hugoton Field is a stratigraphic trap overlying a monocline, with the primary pay found in the Krider Dolomite of Permian age.[7] This dolomite and the overlying Herington dolomite make up the Wolfcampian carbonates. Above these carbonates is the Wichita, an anhydrite and dense dolomite forming the reservoir seal, which thins to the west.[8] Marine carbonates were being deposited from the Late Pennsylvanian until Early Permian when the western portion of the area was uplifted which resulted in erosion and the deposition of red clays and sands, the future red beds consisting of shales and sandstones.[7] Marine carbonate deposition followed, resulting in the interfingering of the red beds and carbonates, the basis of the stratigraphic trap and a tilted gas-water contact.[9]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Pierce, A.P., Gott, G.B., and Mytton, J.W., Uranium and Helium in the Panhandle Gas Field Texas, and Adjacent Areas, Geological Survey Professional Paper 454-G, Washington:US Government Printing Office, 1964, p. G20.
  2. ^ a b c d "Hugoton Gas Area—Oil and Gas Production". chasm.kgs.ku.edu. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  3. ^ Laron, "Hugoton's rich history," AAPG Explorer, Dec. 2013, p.40-44.
  4. ^ Pippin, L., Panhandle-Hugoton Field, Texas-Oklahoma-Kansas-the First Fifty Years, in Geology of Giant Petroleum Fields, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 14, 1970, p. 206
  5. ^ US Energy Information Administration, Top 100 oil and gas fields, PDF file, retrieved 18 February 2009.
  6. ^ Dwight E. Ward and Arthur P. Pierce (1973) "Helium" in United States Mineral Resources, US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 820, p.285-290.
  7. ^ a b Pippin, p. 217
  8. ^ Pippin, pp. 216-217,
  9. ^ Pippin, pp. 217-218

External links edit

  • History of the Hugoton Natural Gas Area
  • Hugoton Asset Management Project
  • Kansas Geological Survey Public Information Circular about Hugoton Natural Gas Area

37°10′48″N 101°20′56″W / 37.1800°N 101.3490°W / 37.1800; -101.3490