Stratigraphy and Petrography of the Upper Silurian Williamsport Sandstone, West Virginia
Authors: Patchen Douglas G. 
Published: December 2007

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Introduction

During the past 8 years the subsurface Newburg sand has become known to be an important reservoir for natural gas in western West Virginia. At present six gas fields have been developed, in addition to a one-well oil field (Fig. 1). Gas from this sandstone has also been produced from several wells in the Samona area.

By the end of 1971, the cumulative delivery from the Newburg was 210 Bcf. However, remaining reserves were down to an estimated 50 Bcf. Therefore, more than 80 percent of the known Newburg gas has been produced. Wildcat wells are being drilled throughout western West Virginia, which hopefully will increase these reserves.

Due to the importance of the Newburg as a gas reservoir, and because of the large amount of interest in it, the West Virginia Geological Survey sponsored a detailed study of the unit that included a stratigraphic study to demonstrate the correlation of the subsurface Newburg and the surface Williamsport Sandstone of West Virginia's eastern panhandle, a petrographic study to determine the textural petrographic study to determine the textural and mineralogic properties of the subsurface Newburg sand and the surface Williamsport sandstone, and a paleo environmental study to determine the origins of different rock types observed in outcrop sections and subsurface cores. The following paper is a summary of this over-all study.

SURFACE STRATIGRAPHY

The Williamsport sandstone was originally named by Reger for a greenish-brown, very fine-grained sandstone between the McKenzie limestone and Wills Creek shale at Williamsport, Grant County, W. Va. (Fig. 2). This formation was later correlated by other workers in the north-eastern counties with an arenaceous, silty facies present between limestones and shales of the McKenzie and Wills Creek.

Eastward from the Grant County type section the greenish-brown sandstones can be traced into the middle of the red Bloomsburg facies, and eventually are totally replaced by red beds. To the north the Williamsport is probably laterally equivalent with the Moyer Ridge sandstone.

A locally occurring carbonate facies, the Cedar Cliff limestone, is present in the middle of the Williamsport in several outcrop sections; whereas in other northeastern outcrops dark shale beds are resent between upper and lower sandstone beds.