The Assessment Unit is the fundamental unit used in the National Assessment Project for the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources. The Assessment Unit is defined within the context of the higher-level Total Petroleum System. The Assessment Unit is shown herein as a geographic boundary interpreted, defined, and mapped by the geologist responsible for the province and incorporates a set of known or postulated oil and (or) gas accumulations sharing similar geologic, geographic, and temporal properties within the Total Petroleum System, such as source rock, timing, migration pathways, trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon type. The Assessment Unit boundary is defined geologically as the limits of the geologic elements that define the Assessment Unit, such as limits of reservoir rock, geologic structures, source rock, and seal lithologies.
This data release also contains comma-separated tabular data in machine readable MS Excel format for assessment input data (5044MidlandBasinInputForms.xlsx). The input data if formatted in a human-readable format used during assessment meetings and is included (5044MidlandBasinInputForms.pdf). Documentation for these data and forms is included (Input Forms Column Descriptions.xlsx). Methodology of assessments are documented in USGS Data Series 547 for continuous assessments (https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/547) and USGS DDS69-D, Chapter 21 for conventional assessments (https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-d/REPORTS/69_D_CH_21.pdf). This data release supercedes https://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F72B8W5Q.