U.S. Geological Survey
Digital Data Series DDS69I

National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project:

Geologic Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas 
Resources of the Black Warrior Basin Province, 
Alabama and Mississippi 

By U.S. Geological Survey Black Warrior Basin Province Assessment Team

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Mark D. Myers, Director

For sale by U.S. Geological Survey Information Services
Box 25286, Building 810
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO  80225-0086
Telephone (303) 202-4200

For more information about the U.S. Geological Survey and its products:
Telephone 1-888-ASK-USGS
URL: http://www.usgs.gov/

Introduction

The purpose of the U.S. Geological Surveys (USGS) National Oil and Gas 
Assessment is to develop geologically based hypotheses regarding the potential 
for additions to oil and gas reserves in priority areas of the United States. 
The USGS recently completed an assessment of undiscovered oil and gas potential 
of the Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate rocks, the Chattanooga and Floyd Shales,
and the Pottsville Formation coals in the Black Warrior Basin Province in 
northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama in the Gulf Coast Region. 
The Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate rocks, the Chattanooga and Floyd Shales, 
and the Pottsville Formation coals are important because of their potential 
for natural gas resources.

This assessment is based on geologic principles and uses the total petroleum 
system concept. The geologic elements of a total petroleum system include 
hydrocarbon source rocks (source rock maturation, hydrocarbon generation and 
migration), reservoir rocks (sequence stratigraphy and petrophysical properties), 
and hydrocarbon traps (trap formation and timing). The USGS used this geologic
framework to define two total petroleum systems and three assessment units. All 
three assessment units were quantitatively assessed for undiscovered oil and gas resources.

Contact Information

This volume is one of a series of products resulting from the National Oil and Gas Assessment project of the U.S. Geological Survey. Inquiries about this CD-ROM or the project should be addressed to:

Christopher J. Schenk, Project Chief
U.S. Geological Survey
Box 25046, Mail Stop 939
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO  80225-0046

Telephone: (303) 236-5796
E-mail: schenk@usgs.gov

Disclaimer

This Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of its employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific
commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data and software published on this CD-ROM have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and (or) the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data, the software, or related materials.

Using This CD

The descriptive and interpretive text chapters of this volume are in PDF format. Use Acrobat Reader 7.0 (installer for Mac and Windows provided on this CD-ROM) to access and bring up these chapters.

The USGS Central Energy Resources Team has developed an Internet Map Service to deliver the GIS data to the public. The spatial data that formed the basis of the GIS are provided online at the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment Web site (NOGA Online:
http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga) and are also contained on this CD-ROM in the Spatial folder. Several data formats are provided as noted by subfolders (Export and Shape). The Doc subfolder contains metadata documentation in HTML format that is also incorporated in each shapefile and export file in XML format.

Most of the base cartographic data layers used in the GIS project were obtained from the U.S. Department of the Interior National Atlas Web site, www.nationalatlas.gov, or the U.S. Geological Survey National Map, http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm.

Contents of This CD-ROM  

When the CDROM is opened, the following folders appear on the screen:
ACROBATcontains installer for Acrobat Reader 7.0.
OPEN_FIRSTfrom OPEN_FIRST.pdf in this folder, navigate to the
ReadMe file, an executive summary, pages of chapter titles, and the GIS data and 				metadata.
READMEyou can access the ReadMe file from this folder also.
REPORTSlisting of and links to the chapters, plus the tabular data.
SPATIALfolder containing files for the GIS data and metadata.

There are several routes to the information in this volume.

System Requirements

MAC OS X
Adobe Reader 7
  Power PC G3, G4, G5 processor
  Mac OS X v.10.2.8 or 10.3
  128 MB of RAM
  80 MB of available hard disk space (110 MB required for the full version)
  800 x 600 screen resolution

WINDOWS
Adobe Reader 7.0 MS Windows
  Intel Pentium-class processor
  Windows XP Professional or Home Edition with SP1 or SP2, or Tablet 

PC Edition
  Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  128 MB of RAM
  90 MB of available hard-disk space for the full version
  800 x 600 monitor resolution

Note:  Installers for Acrobat Reader 7.0 for Macintosh and Windows
platforms are provided on this CD-ROM.