STRATIGRAPHY AND PETROLEUM GEOLOGY OF THE UPPER DEVONIAN ALEXANDER SAND, BARBOUR COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA

The Alexander sand is a driller’s term for an Upper Devonian, gas-producing stratum in northern West Virginia. Frasnian in age, it is considered to be equivalent to the Briery Gap Member of the Foreknobs Formation along the Allegheny front. Gas production is from two areas; basin-center turbidites in north central West Virginia and shelf sands from northeastern West Virginia. The sand facies extends from Preston County south to Upshur County in an arcuate trend roughly parallel to the outcrop. The Alexander is located stratigraphically from 175 to 200 feet below the Benson sand. This study considers the Alexander sand in Barbour County where the unit consists of at least three 12 to 20 foot thick coarsening-up sand bodies separated by thin intervals of shale as indicated on gamma-ray logs. These sand bodies are interpreted to be shelf sands deposited on an aggrading shelf seaward of the Augusta lobe of the Catskill delta complex. Production from the Alexander sand in Barbour County is from the lower or middle of the three extensive sand bodies. Log porosity typically ranges from 6 to 10 percent. Completion of this tight sand requires fracturing. Production solely from the Alexander is rare and more commonly is commingled with gas from the Benson sand or shallower Upper Devonian gas sands.