Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources in the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale of the U.S. Gulf Coast, 2018

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a geology-based assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the continuous, self-sourced reservoir in the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in the U.S. Gulf Coast region (fig. 1). The assessed interval is part of the Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) in onshore lands and State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. The Tuscaloosa marine shale is an organic-rich, siliceous mudstone of the late Cenomanian to Turonian. Its thickness is as much as 495 feet (ft), and the vertical depths of the reservoirs in currently producing horizontal wells are from 11,000 to 14,000 ft.