GEOLOGY OF THE PAX GAS FIELD, RALEIGH AND FAYETTE COUNTIES, WEST VIRGINIA

The Pax field is a small gas field located at the border of Raleigh and Fayette counties, West Virginia. Production is from the Ravencliff Sandstone, a prominent sandstone unit in the upper part of the Upper Mississippian Hinton Formation. The field is developed in fluvial sandstones in a segment of a channel located immediately south of a bifurcation of the Ravencliff drainage. The trap is a combination trap where fluvial sands with sufficient porosity are located in an arch that is formed less by regional compression than by compactional draping. Net thickness of the producing sands is from 50 to 125 feet but this interval is comprised of several sand units rather than a single depositional phase. The depositional cycles allow for some reservoir compartmentalization but most wells are completed across several depositional units. Maximum log porosities range from 9 to 14.5 percent with those wells having less than about 9 percent being non-productive.