Hydrodynamic Entrapment of Oil and Gas in Bisti Field, San Juan County, New Mexico

The Bisti field, on the southwest flank of the San Juan basin, produces oil and gas from the Cretaceous Gallup sandstone. The accumulation is in a series of narrow permeability lenses totaling more than 30 miles in length. The lenses are permeability developments in an epineritic facies. Updip from the epineritic facies is a transition zone of littoral and near-shore environmental deposits. A deltaic facies extends from the transition facies to the outcrops of the formation. Zones of sandstone developments can be traced from the epineritic facies through the transition zone to the deltaic facies. There is no structural closure or nosing in the field. At the west end of the field, the accumulation forms an oil column more than 365 feet in height. The height of the oil column is sufficient to develop a capillary pressure of more than 52 pounds per square inch at the updip edge of the accumulation. Analyses of the limited cores available indicate that the entry pressures, or threshold pressures, of the more permeable sandstones in the transition facies are in most places less than 22 pounds per square inch. The capillary pressure of the column of oil under hydrostatic conditions should be sufficient to cause much of the oil to migrate updip out of the permeability lenses. Favorable hydrodynamics is responsible for retaining the additional oil. A decrease in pressure causes a flow of water downdip across the permeability barrier to fo m a hydrodynamic trap sufficient to retain the oil accumulation.