Where is the Niobrara shale located?

Where is the Niobrara shale located?

2.22 Niobrara Shale

The Niobrara shale formation (Denver-Julesburg Basin, Colorado) is a shale rock formation located in Northeast Colorado, Northwest Kansas, Southwest Nebraska, and Southeast Wyoming. Oil and natural gas can be found deep below the earth’s surface at depths of 3000–14,000.

How old is the Niobrara formation?

between 87 and 82 million years ago
əˈbrærə/, also called the Niobrara Chalk, is a geologic formation in North America that was deposited between 87 and 82 million years ago during the Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous.

Where is the Wattenberg field in Colorado?

Denver-Julesburg
The Wattenberg field is located in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in northeast Colorado and covers approximately 81 townships (1.9 million acres). The field became active in 1970 with the discovery of the J Sandstone at a depth of ≈8,000 ft, and has experienced several cycles of expansion and revitalization.

How much oil is in the DJ Basin?

The DJ Basin, located in Colorado and Wyoming, accounted for 7.02% of oil and 6.65% of natural gas production in the United States Lower 48 in 2020. The play peaked in production in November 2019, with 801.5 thousand barrels of oil per day (mbd) and 5.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas.

What does the word Niobrara mean?

The word “niobrara” comes from the native Ponca language meaning running waters or wide waters.

Where is oil found in Nebraska?

Hitchcock County was the top-producing county in 2020, pumping 579,165 barrels. Dundy County was next, followed by Kimball County. On the low production side, Sioux County had oil wells producing 590 barrels in 2020, with Lincoln County slightly ahead of that, pumping 603 barrels.

What type of rock makes up Niobrara Formation?

The Niobrara Formation ranges in lithology from limestone to chalk to a slightly calcareous shale of Late Cretaceous age that was deposited in a shallow epicontinental sea during Late Cretaceous time (Shurr and Rice, 1987).

What oil basins are in Colorado?

Colorado’s main oil- and natural gas-producing regions are the Denver Basin in northeastern Colorado and the Piceance Basin in western Colorado. The San Juan Basin that stretches across the Colorado-New Mexico border was once a major natural gas-producing area, but output from that area has declined in recent years.

What does DJ Basin stand for?

Denver-Julesburg Basin
Introduction. The Denver-Julesburg Basin, or commonly referred to as the DJ basin, is centered on the eastern side of the rocky mountains and extends from just south of Denver all the way to southeast Wyoming, western Nebraska, and western Kansas.

How deep is the Denver Basin?

approximately 13,000 ft
The basin is deepest near Denver, where it reaches a depth of approximately 13,000 ft (3900 m) below the surface.

How many oil wells are in Nebraska?

Read about Nebraska’s state energy profile »
As of January 1, 2016, Nebraska had 2,817 oil and natural gas wells. Of that total, 2,106 wells—75 percent—were wells actively producing oil or gas.

Are there snakes in the Niobrara river?

The ringneck snake occurs in deciduous forest oriented areas of the valley and reaches its western limits there, while the eastern hognose snake also occurs in the valley and is otherwise only marginally distributed across the Sandhills.

How deep is the Niobrara river?

The Niobrara River, which was called Running Water by Indians and early settlers, extends across northern Nebraska from its narrow beginning in eastern Wyoming. At Valentine, near its midway point, the Niobrara River has cut a valley nearly 300 feet deep and a half mile wide.

Is there fracking in Nebraska?

Alhough fracking does occur throughout the state, a great deal of activity is focused in the southwest corners of the state. Like other states, Nebraska does require reporting of the chemicals in fracking fluid. The Department of Oil and Gas Conservation Commission oversees fracking in the state.

Are there any oil wells in Nebraska?

There are about 1 million producing oil wells across the U.S., but the number of active wells in Nebraska has remained stable, with 1,571 producing wells reported in 1960 from NDEE data, and 1,429 producing wells reported 60 years later in 2020.

How thick is the Pierre Shale?

about 700 feet
The Pierre Shale is about 700 feet (210m) thick at the type locality. It overlies the Niobrara division and underlies the Fox Hills beds. It was named for an occurrence near Fort Pierre on the Missouri River in South Dakota. The Pierre Shale is of marine origin and was deposited in the Western Interior Seaway.

Who has the most untapped oil in the world?

the United States
possible and undiscovered), the United States is at the top of the list with 264 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, followed by Russia with 256 billion, Saudi Arabia with 212 billion, Canada with 167 billion, Iran with 143 billion, and Brazil with 120 billion (Table 1).

Does the Bakken have more oil than Saudi Arabia?

In 2000, the USGS assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in Saudi Arabia at 87 billion barrels (USGS 2000 World Petroleum Assessment) compared to a mean estimate of 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable continuous oil in the Bakken and Three Forks formations (USGS …

How long will the Denver aquifer last?

The groundwater supplies were once thought to be sufficient for 100 years but there is concern that they may be depleted in 10 to 15 years in areas on the west side of the basin.

Is there an aquifer under Pueblo Colorado?

The Lower Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone and underlying Purgatoire Formation (Dakota aquifer) form a broad outcrop at the southeastern margin of the Canon City Embayment just west of Pueblo, Colorado.

Where are Copperheads found in Nebraska?

Copperheads (next page, Figure O are stout-bodied snakes, appro- priately named because of the coppery top of the head. In Nebraska they are known to occur only in southern Gage and Richardson Counties, but they also may occur along the Missouri River bluffs south of the Platte River.

Can you swim in the Niobrara river?

The Niobrara is a favorite vacation destination for outdoor enthusiasts each summer. Most visitors come to canoe, kayak, tube, swim, or fish.

Are there oil fields in Nebraska?

Nebraska’s crude oil production in 2019 was 1,912,000 barrels or 5,268 barrels per day which represented only 4.1 percent of the petroleum products consumed in the state. Crude oil production began in 1939 but, prior to 1950, there was no entity to report production for record keeping.

How many oil refineries are in Nebraska?

no refineries
Nebraska today has no refineries.

What is the most likely depositional environment of the Pierre Shale?

The Pierre Shale is of marine origin and was deposited in the Western Interior Seaway. It is correlative with other marine shales that occur farther west, such as the Bearpaw Shale, Mancos Shale and the Lewis Shale.
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