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Draft:Wolfcamp Formation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Comment: This will need to be completely rewritten as AI/LLM is not allowed here. See WP:Your first article and start over. S0091 (talk) 19:08, 28 September 2026 (UTC)


Introduction

Since 2018, the United States has led the world in oil production. More than 13 million barrels of oil/day was produced in 2025 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration[1]. Most of the domestic U.S. oil supply is produced from low permeability ("tight") oil reservoirs that are also referred to as "unconventional" or "continuous" reservoirs. Tight oil and gas reservoirs typically require hydraulic fracture stimulation (aka "fraking") where water and sand are pumped at high pressure to create cracks in the rock that allow oil and gas to flow into the well bore. The Permian Basin region of west Texas and southeast New Mexico leads the U.S. in tight oil production that reached a peak of 6.2 million barrels of oil/day in July 2026[2]. One of the major tight oil and gas producing formations in the Permian Basin is from an interval that is informally referred to as the Wolfcamp shale, or simply the Wolfcamp. In 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the undiscovered mean oil resource of the Wolfcamp shale in the Delaware Basin (western sub-basin of the Permian Basin) at 29.5 billion barrels of oil (excluding natural gas condensate)[3].

Wolfcamp Formation

The Wolfcamp Formation was originally described by Udden (1917)[4] for outcrop exposures in the Glass Mountains located near Wolf Camp Hills, approximately 13 mi (21 km) northeast of Marathon Texas[5] . Ross (1959)[6] later subdivided and renamed the Wolfcamp Formation of Udden (2017)[4] to the Neal Ranch and the overlying Lenox Hills formations, thereby making the name Wolfcamp Formation obsolete (USGS Geolex)[5]. The Wolfcamp shale is currently used as an informal lithostratigraphic name referring to Lower Permian (Cisuralian) rocks in the subsurface Permian Basin region of west Texas and southeast New Mexico. Camp (2025)[7] proposed reinstating the abandoned name Wolfcamp Formation for basinal deposits composed of black shale and minor limestone/dolostone in the subsurface Delaware Basin of New Mexico and Texas. The proposed Wolfcamp Formation is defined as the stratigraphic interval between the base of the lowermost sandstone of the Bone Spring Formation and the top of the Strawn Formation/Group as defined between 10,850 ft and 13,750 ft in the proposed principal reference section in the RKI Exploration and Production (Florida Gas Exploration) Ross Draw 7 well (API no. 30015228100000) located in Section 26-Township 26S-Range 30E, latitude 32.011494, longitude -103.849762, Eddy County, New Mexico.

Dimensions and Regional Relations

The top of the proposed Wolfcamp Formation of Camp (2025)[7] dips eastward, ranging in elevation from about 1200 ft (366 m) below sea level along the Diablo Platform in the west, to about 9200 ft (2800 m) below sea level near the Texas-New Mexico state border, west of the Central Basin Platform[8]. The thickness of the proposed Wolfcamp Formation ranges from about 800 ft (245 m) to more than 7200 ft (2200 m) at the structural center of the Delaware Basin located in Reeves County, Texas[8]. The proposed formation covers portions of Eddy and Lea counties, New Mexico, and Culbertson, Reeves, Loving, Winkler and Ward Counties, Texas[9].

Geological Age

Absolute age dates of 287.8+/-0.3 and 285.12+/-0.12 Ma (Artinskian) were obtained from two bentonite beds (altered volcanic ash) recovered from cores near the top of the proposed Wolfcamp Formation in the Delaware Basin[10] [11]. The base of the formation has not been dated in the Delaware Basin, but deposition is inferred to have begun during the middle Missourian (middle Kasimovian-early Gzhelian) based on conodont and fusulinid fossils recovered from cores from correlative strata in the northern Midland Basin[12].

Formation Status

Adoption of the proposed Wolfcamp Formation of Camp (2025)[7] as a formal lithostratigraphic unit is pending use and publication by others demonstrating its utility following the guidelines of the North American Stratigraphic Code prepared by the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature (NACSN, 2021)[13] Lucas (2026, p.17)[14] objects to the proposed reinstatement of the name Wolfcamp Formation stating that it is a "misappropriation" of the original name [although the original name has since been formally abandoned] and recommends developing a "new, sound lithostratigraphic nomenclature" for the subsurface Permian Basin. Camp (2026)[15] argued that introducing a new name other than Wolfcamp would create additional confusion citing the long-established use of the Wolfcamp as an informal subsurface lithostratigraphic name. Sorkhabi (2026)[16] supports using the proposed Wolfcamp Formation name citing its historical informal usage in the Permian Basin and states that "it deserves an official lithostratigraphic name" because of the importance of the petroleum production from the proposed Wolfcamp Formation. Correlative units in the Midland Basin, Central Basin Uplift and Val Verde Basin await formal definition.

  1. ↑ "Petroleum & Other Liquids". U.S. Energy Information Administration. September 30, 2026. Retrieved October 1, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ "Oil and petroleum products explained: Where our oil comes from". U.S. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved October 1, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ "Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources in the Wolfcamp Shale and Bone Spring Formation of the Delaware Basin, Permian Basin Province, New Mexico and Texas, 2018". Permian Basin Oil and Gas Assessments. December 6, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 1 2 Udden, J. A. (1917). "Notes on the geology of the Glass Mountains". University of Texas Bulletin (1753): 1–59.
  5. 1 2 "National Geologic Map Database, Geolex search results. Unit names starting with "Wolfcamp,"". National Geologic Map Database. Retrieved October 2, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ↑ Ross, C. A. (1959). "The Wolfcamp Series (Permian) and new species of fusulinids,Glass Mountains, Texas". Washington Academy of Sciences Journal. 49 (9): 299–316.
  7. 1 2 3 Camp, W. K. (2025). "Proposal to reinstate the Wolfcamp Formation as a formal lithostratigraphic unit for the subsurface Delaware Basin, New Mexico and Texas". American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. 109 (7): 863–877.
  8. 1 2 Popova, O. (2020). "Permian Basin, part 1: Wolfcamp, Bone Spring, Delaware shale plays of the Delaware Basin, Geology review" (PDF). U. S. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved October 2, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ Gaswirth, S. B. (2020). "Structure contour and isopach maps of the Wolfcamp shale and Bone Spring Formation of the Delaware Basin, Permian Basin Province, New Mexico and Texas" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020-1126. Retrieved October 2, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ Pickering, J. N. (2023). "A new isochron for stratigraphic correlation in the Permian Delaware Basin and beyond". Marine and Petroleum Geology. 157 (106502): 1–15.
  11. ↑ Minisini, D. and P. Desjardins (2024). "Application of a deepwater stratigraphic framework to the production of the Wolfcampian units in the Permian Basin". American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. 108 (1): 179–212.
  12. ↑ Barrick, J. E., and G. P. Wahlman (2019). "Conodont and fusulinid biostratigraphy of the Strawn Group (Desmoinesian, Middle Pennsylvanian) and lower part of the "Wolfcamp Shale" (Missourian Virgilian, Late Pennsylvanian) in the northern Midland Basin, west Texas". Stratigraphy. 16 (2): 65–86.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature (2021). "North American stratigraphic code". Stratigraphy. 18 (3): 153–204.
  14. ↑ Lucas, Spencer G. (2026). "Use and misuse of the terms Wolfcamp and Wolfcampian in Permian lithostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy". Permophiles (80): 16–20.
  15. ↑ Camp, Wayne K. (2026). "Use and misuse of the terms Wolfcamp and Wolfcampian in Permian lithostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy: Discussion". Permophiles (81): 25–26.
  16. ↑ Sorkhabi, Rasoul (2026). "In Defense of Wolfcamp Formation in the Permian Superbasin". Permophiles (81): 24.

References

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