U.S. Geological Survey

Digital Data Series DDS–69–X

National Oil and Gas Assessment Project:

Geologic Assessment of Undiscovered Hydrocarbon Resources of 

the Western Oregon and Washington Province

By U.S. Geological Survey Western Oregon and Washington Province Assessment 

Team 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

KEN SALAZAR, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Marcia K. McNutt, 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 Survey (USGS) National Oil and Gas Assessment is to develop geology-based hypotheses regarding the potential for additions to 

oil and gas reserves in priority areas of the United States, focusing on the distribution, 

quantity, and availability of oil and natural gas resources. The USGS has completed an 

assessment of the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in western Oregon and Washington (USGS Western Oregon and Washington Province 5004). 

The province includes all of Oregon and Washington north of the Klamath Mountains 

and west of the crest of the Cascade Range, and extends offshore to the 3-mi limit of 

State waters on the west and to the International Boundary in the Straits of Juan de 

Fuca and Canada on the north. It measures about 450 mi north–south and 50 to 160 mi 

east–west, encompassing more than 40,000 mi2

.

The assessment of the Western Oregon and Washington Province is geology based 

and used the total petroleum system (TPS) concept. The geologic elements of a TPS 

include hydrocarbon source rocks (source rock maturation and hydrocarbon generation 

and migration), reservoir rocks (quality and distribution), and traps for hydrocarbon 

accumulation. Using these geologic criteria, two conventional and one unconventional 

(continuous) total petroleum systems were defined, with one assessment unit (AU) in 

each TPS: (1) the Cretaceous-Tertiary Composite TPS and the Western Oregon and 

Washington Conventional Gas AU, (2) the Tertiary Marine TPS and the Tertiary-Marine Gas AU, and (3) the Tertiary Coalbed Gas TPS and the Eocene Coalbed Gas AU, 

in which a cell-based methodology was used to estimate coalbed-gas resources.

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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. 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 these data have been processed successfully on 

a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display 

or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution 

constitute any such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of 

the data described and/or contained herein. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public 

domain, it also contains copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items for 

other than personal use must be secured from the copyright owner.

Using This CD

The descriptive and interpretive text chapters of this volume are in PDF format. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 

(installer for Mac and Windows provided on this CD-ROM) to access these chapters.

Contained on this CD–ROM are tabular data and graphical images in support of the assessment. Chapter three 

contains tabular data and graphical images in support of the undiscovered, technically recoverable coalbed-gas resources in Cretaceous and Teritary rocks. The chapter text PDF contains links to the data and images. Data-table 

files are presented as tab-delimited text files (.tab files), usable in spreadsheet and database software. Graphical 

and summary-table files are presented as portable document format files (.pdf files).

The USGS Central Energy Resources Science Center 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. GIS information is presented in the Spatial folder and its subdirectories 

that contain the spatial data and documentation. The Spatial folder contains metadata for western Oregon and 

Washington and adjacent State waters. The Spatial folder contains ArcView\ArcGIS shapefiles used in the GIS 

project. 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 CD–ROM is opened, the following folders appear on the screen:

ACROBAT—contains installer for Acrobat Reader 7.0.

OPEN_FIRST—from OPEN_FIRST.pdf in this folder, navigate to the 

ReadMe file, an executive summary, pages of chapter titles, and the GIS data and metadata.

READ_ME—you can access the ReadMe file from this folder also.

REPORTS—listing of, and links to, the chapters, plus the tabular data. 

SPATIAL_DATA—metadata and shape files.

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.

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