American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.
The 1969 discovery of Tennessee's first million-barrel field, Oneida West in Scott County, has resulted in a significant increase in the state's drilling activity and production in the last 5 years. This Mississippian carbonate play, centered in the Northern Cumberland play, centered in the Northern Cumberland plateau region, has resulted in several plateau region, has resulted in several good Ft. Payne limestone discoveries trending northeast through Scott and Morgan Counties. Several lesser finds have been made in the younger Monteagle and Bangor limestones. A number of scattered potential shallow gas wells have been drilled and shut-in, but little data is available on reserves. Marketed gas remains insignificant largely because of lack of pipeline facilities.
Mississippian pays are found depths of less than 2000 feet, and most fields appear to be stratigraphic traps with little or no relationship to structure. The better Ft. Payne fields are gas cap and gas-solution drive reservoirs with no producible water.
In 1974 crude oil production totaled a record 768,700 bbl, a sizeable increase from the previous year due largely to the Ft. Payne discovery at Indian Creek in late 1973. Field operators are initiating a repressuring program for this reservoir. Cumulative production from Indian Creek should reach a million bbl near the end of this year.
Several deep tests drilled in this part of the state have found porosity and gas shows in the Copper porosity and gas shows in the Copper Ridge section of the Knox Group. However, the premississippian horizons which may have potential in eastern Tennessee still remain largely untested.
