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Description
The area mapped and designated in this study as the Kettleman City vicinity is located in the western portion of the central San Joaquin Valley and covers approximately 210 square miles in Fresno and Kings Counties, California. This area was chosen because of the interest in deep production in the Kettleman City oil field. The purpose of this study was to produce an updated stratigraphic framework for deep exploration in the Kettleman City vicinity of the central westside of the San Joaquin Valley. A stratigraphic correlation chart (Plate V) was developed which included both the formal stratigraphic nomenclature as used by the United States Geologic Survey and the equivalent informal colloquial names used by the petroleum industry. Regional stratigraphic correlations were necessary to relate the producing intervals in the Kettleman City area to the producing intervals in nearby oil fields. Subsurface stratigraphic correlations were made primarily from electric logs. Well records, including mudlogs, cores, and sidewall samples were also evaluated. All of the information from the electric logs and well records was integrated with the information available in the literature on the stratigraphy and geologic and sedimentary processes which affected the area. Subsurface contours were made on the top of the Temblor Formation covering the 210 square mile area in which the Kettleman City oil field is centrally located. The contours delineated an anticlinal structure in the subsurface which was very broad and of low relief. An effort was also made to ascertain the trapping mechanism responsible for the hydrocarbon accumulations in the Kettleman City vicinity. It was concluded that the hydrocarbon accumulation found in the Kettleman City vicinity were the result of stratigraphic variations caused by multiple episodes of flexure. These stratigraphic variations can only be delineated by the thorough identification and correlation of stratigraphic units which is made easier by uniformity in nomenclature.
