Depositional systems in the Atoka and Morrow series (Pennsylvanian), Haley Field area, Loving County, Texas

Haley Field, Loving County, Texas has produced over 300 bcf of gas from Morrowan and Atokan strata in the Delaware Basin. However, only one in four wells drilled in the field is economic. These reservoirs were deposited in a deep-water setting in a basin undergoing active tectonism in response to the Marathon-Ouachita orogeny. The Central Basin Uplift, the Grisham Anticline, and the Red Hills Arch all altered sediment distribution in the basin. Lower and middle Morrow strata are multiple-source submarine ramp turbidites that flowed from the Northwest Shelf and the Central Basin Uplift. A carbonate shelf edge developed along the Northwest Shelf during the late Morrowan and prograded basinward during the Atokan. Channels cut into the high-relief shelf edge fed sand-rich turbidites deposited on the basin plain. Exploration potential exists in stacked channels, fan lobes and overbank deposits associated with turbidites both in the Morrow and the Atoka.