Application of Landsat imagery to oil exploration in Niobrara Formation, Denver Basin, Wyoming

The Niobrara Formation produces oil from fractures in several places in the Denver basin. The Niobrara is an oil-prone, mature source rock that entered the oil-generating window during the Laramide orogeny. The Laramide orogeny began with maximum compressive stress oriented east-northeast during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene, and ended with maximum stress oriented to the northeast in the Eocene. We believe the Eocene phase activated northeast-trending extension fractures that may have acted as pathways for migration and loci for storage of oil, locally generated in the Niobrara. Theoretically, the fracture pressures related to oil generation in the Niobrara would preferentially open and fill this northeast-trending fracture system. Using Landsat imagery to map fractures in the northern part of the Denver basin, we have identified areas prospective for Niobrara oil production within an exploration fairway that is based on subsurface isopach and resistivity mapping. Support for this concept is the location of wells, reported to produce oil from the Niobrara, along a zone of northeast-trending lineaments.