Open-file Report - 529
Petroleum source rock data for the Bone Spring Formation, Delaware Basin, southeastern New Mexico

This database (Bone Spring 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 of the upper part of the Bone Spring Formation (Permian: Leonardian). 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- Bone Spring lithologies (cavings from shallower stratigraphic units). Only the dark-lime mudstone/wackestone source facies from the Bone Spring 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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