Geochemical controls on production in the Barnett Shale, Fort Worth Basin.

The Newark East field (Barnett Shale) in the Fort Worth Basin, Texas currently has the largest daily production of any gas field in Texas. Major controls on production in the basin include: the quantity and character of organic matter, the thermal maturity history, and the mineralogy of the Barnett Shale. This study uses Rock Eval to investigate the quantity and character of the organic matter and general thermal maturity, vitrinite reflectance, δ¹³C of produced methane and methane abundance to evaluate thermal maturity in more detail, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine mineralogy. Based on these analyses, it is apparent that the best production from the Barnett Shale is typically found in maturation areas from 1.65 to 2.10%Ro with high organic carbon content, high quartz content, low calcite content and low dolomite content.