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Diagenesis Of The Middle Member Of The Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota, Katharine L. Kimber

Theses and Dissertations

The shales of the Bakken Formation have been extensively studied since the discovery of oil, but little attention has been paid to the middle reservoir member. Successfully produced wells are concentrated in multiple fields throughout the Williston Basin, there has been no definitive way to determine a well’s potential productivity. This study used core samples, point counting, and petrography to determine the diagenetic traits common to the Middle Member of the Bakken Formation and their effect on oil production. Cores from forty-one wells were examined. Thin sections were made from sixteen cores, eight producing wells and eight dry wells. All …

Conodonts Of The Bakken Formation (Devonian And Mississippian), Williston Basin, North Dakota, Michael D. Hayes

Theses and Dissertations

The Bakken Formation is a thin (maximum 145 ft., 44 m), predominantly elastic unit in the subsurface of the Williston Basin in the United States and Canada. The formation consists of two, mostly non-calcareous, grayish-black to brownish-black shales separated by light to dark gray, calcareous and dolomitic siltstone and fine-grained sandstone. The carbonaceous, black shales of the Bakken produce a distinctive geophysical marker and are a major source rock for hydrocarbons in the Williston Basin.

Conodonts were selectively sampled from cores of the Bakken in North Dakota in an effort to determine the age and thermal maturity of the formation. …

Analysis Of Petroleum Source Rocks Of The Bakken Formation (Devonian And Mississippian) In North Dakota, Rick L. Webster

Theses and Dissertations

The Bakken Formation of North Dakota consists of upper and lower, black, organic-rich shales separated by a calcareous siltstone middle member. The formation is a relatively thin unit (maximum thickness of 145 feet) with the lower shale .attaining a maximum thickness of 50 feet and the upper shale a maximum thickness of 23 feet. The shales are hard, siliceous, pyritic, fissile, and noncalcareous. They contain abundant conodonts and tasmanites and have planar laminations accented by pyrite. The upper and lower shales were apparently deposited in an offshore, marine, anoxic environment where anoxic conditions may have been caused by silling of …