Monthly Luncheon

Speaker: Eric Radjef

Company: UT-Bureau of Economic Geology

Presentation: Strawn Production History

Biography of Eric Radjef

Eric Radjef is a geologist with the Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin, doing subsurface geologic interpretation for a wide range of Texas energy projects. Most of his 30+-year career was spent in oil and gas exploration and development – including jobs with ARCO in the 90s, BP and Brigham in the 00s, and Statoil in the 10s. He has been employed at the BEG since 2020.

Eric received his BS in Geology from Trinity University and his MS in Geosciences from UT-Dallas.

Strawn Production History

During the approximately one-hundred-year history of Strawn oil and gas development, more than 25,000 Strawn wells have produced 1.2 billion barrels of oil and 4.6 trillion cubic feet of gas from almost 3000 fields. Strawn exploration and production is ongoing, and the Strawn remains one of the most prolific producing intervals in Texas. A comprehensive summation of all Strawn producing wells reveals the existence of 186 fields that have either produced more than one million barrels of oil or more than ten billion cubic feet of gas from the Strawn. These major Strawn fields are commonly associated with laterally-restricted deltaic sands or with localized carbonate build-ups, and they reflect complex and ever-changing paleogeography throughout the Desmoinesian to early Missourian.

Strawn reservoirs are distributed over a vast area; the individual reservoirs are areally limited; and reservoir occurrence is difficult to predict. For these reasons, significant Strawn oil and gas resources likely remain to be discovered. Investigators at the BEG are doing regional studies of depositional systems, as well as oil geochemistry and migration, in order to better predict the occurrence of oil-charged reservoirs. Mapping the distribution of the largest of the Strawn fields may help operators high-grade areas of undiscovered commercial accumulations and spark new ideas for further exploration.

Members and guests are welcome. Meal prices are $15 with or without a reservation but reservations are encouraged!