Land subsidence along the northeastern Texas Gulf coast: effects of deep hydrocarbon production

The Texas Gulf of Mexico coast is experiencing high (5-11 mm/yr) rates of relative sea level (RSL) rise that are the sum of subsidence and eustatic sea level (ESL) rise. Even higher rates are associated with areas of ground-water pumping from confined aquifers. We investigate the possibility of deep petroleum production as a cause for the high regional rates of subsidence. The northeast Texas coast was chosen for the study because it has a high rate of RSL rise, very limited groundwater production, and a long history of petroleum production. We examine in detail the Big Hill and Fannett fields, for which adequate bottom hole pressure (BHP) and well log data are available. The hypothesis of deep petroleum production is tested in three ways. First, industry BHP tests show many of the fields are depressurized to far below hydrostatic pressures. Second, analysis of BHP data over time in the Big Hill and Fannett fields indicates that some zones in these fields were below hydrostatic when production commenced. This indicates that depressurization from production in neighboring fields or zones within the same field is not limited to the production zone. Third, three models for subsidence (a general 1-D regional model, an intra-reservoir model, and a reservoir bounding layer model), using reasonable hydrogeological parameters, predict subsidence within the inferred range of data. The latter two models use data from the Big Hill and Fannett fields. Additional verification of the hypothesis that deep petroleum production is causing or accelerating regional subsidence will require the collection and analysis of data on the subsurface hydrogeological parameters and detailed measurements of the spatial and temporal distribution of subsidence along the Texas Coast.