Open-file Report - 528
Petroleum source rock data for the Brushy Canyon Formation, Delaware Basin, southeastern New Mexico

This database (Brushy Canyon source rocks.xls) presented in this open file report has its origins in a large multidisciplinary research project at New Mexico Tech that was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE Contract No. DE-AC-26-99BC15218: Risk Reduction with a Fuzzy Expert Exploration Tool). The purpose of the project was to apply modern artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic techniques to develop a computerized tool that reduces risk in oil and gas prospecting. As part of the project, data from several petroleum systems were generated and gathered and input into the fuzzy logic system. One petroleum system was the Lower to Middle Permian system of the lower Brushy Canyon Formation (reservoir and source) and upper Bone Spring Formation (source) in the Delaware Basin of southeastern New Mexico. Results of the geological analysis of this system are available in Justman (2001), Justman and Broadhead (2000) and Broadhead and Justman (2000). The data presented in this open file report were generated by Heidi Justman as part of her graduate studies in geology at New Mexico Tech from 1998 through 2001 under the direction of the junior author. The data constitute petroleum source rock analyses made on well cuttings and core samples from the Brushy Canyon Formation (Permian: Guadalupian). Most of the samples are from the lower part of the Brushy Canyon Formation as defined stratigraphically by resistivity and gamma ray log markers (Figure 1), but a few samples were from the upper part of the Brushy Canyon. Most oil and gas obtained from the Brushy Canyon in the New Mexico part of the Delaware Basin has been produced from turbidite and submarine fan reservoirs in the lower part of the Brushy Canyon. Analyzed samples are composites of cuttings from several 10 ft drilled intervals. In most cases, there is one sample per well. Cuttings were carefully selected (“picked”) to exclude non- Brushy Canyon lithologies and cavings from shallower strata within the Brushy Canyon. Only the dark, kerogen-rich source facies from the Brushy Canyon were analyzed. Once the samples were selected, they were sent to Geoffrey S. Bayliss of Geochem Laboratories, Inc. in Houston, Texas for analysis.

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