What Basin is Reeves County in?

Does anyone know whether Reeves County is in the Delaware or Permian basin?

Hi Patricia,

Reeves county is located in the Delaware Basin which is located within the Permian Basin.

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Patricia…

Both. Until ‘they’ get their act together and agree that the Pecos River defines the western boundary of the Permian basin and the eastern boundary of the Delaware basin…Reeves county is in Both. I maintain that the Pecos River Rift should be defined as that boundary and everything to the west of the Pecos River is the Delaware basin in Reeves, Culberson, Pecos, and Hudspeth counties. ‘They’ are trying to rename Hudspeth county as the Orogrande basin…but it’s the same stacked shale play formations as the rest of Culberson, Reeves, etc.
But, I’m not a high mucky muck petroleum engineer that makes such determinations…

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Really Lawrence, what difference does it make which basin we are in? I had always heard we were in the Delaware Basin. I say “we were” because I am from Pecos, moved to San Angelo after 50 years in Pecos. Is there any more to Verhalen than a general store that used to be there? Tommy Beauchamp

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When they say “basin” think of is as a giant geological bowl of rock. In the case of the Permian, its a giant bowl made up of two very distinct “sub bowls” the Midland basin and the Delaware basin. The boundaries of these are not arbitrary but rather are rooted in and defined by geology.

The following link does a great job of visualizing this concept with county lines superimposed on the geologic structures. You will note Reeves County is on the more gently sloping eastern side of the Delaware basin within the larger Permian basin. And the Pecos river runs right through the heart of the Delaware basin.

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Thanks KatKon. 3D maps are perfect for understanding basins.

What does the bright yellow scattered on the surface represent?

That was just an Operators acreage footprint overlayed on top of the structural map. It isn’t meaningful in this case, just an artifact on the display.