Click to download the STARR Progress Report
The Bureau’s State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery (STARR) program has been highly successful in its primary objective of increasing severance tax revenues for the State of Texas through research projects that promote the drilling of profitable oil and gas wells in the State. In its 22-year history, STARR has undertaken more than 60 field (reservoir characterization) and 15 regional studies, with over 50 Texas oil and gas operators participating in the program.
Presentations to regional audiences by STARR scientists have helped generate awareness of research results and helped operators understand the value of research partnerships, both key in sustaining interest in ongoing projects and initiating new projects. On April 12, Bureau research scientist William Ambrose presented “Representative Oil and Gas Plays in the East Texas, Fort Worth, and Anadarko Basins” to more than 50 at a meeting of the Dallas Geological Society. His presentation was an overview of three prolific oil and gas plays in Texas—the Woodbine, Marble Falls, and Cleveland Formations—that have been the focus of recent research by STARR. On May 5, Bureau research scientist Tucker Hentz presented findings of a recently completed STARR project, “New Interpretations of Reservoir Architecture of the Upper Cretaceous Woodbine Group in East Texas Field: Sequence Stratigraphic and Depositional Perspectives,” to about 40 members of the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES) in Austin. The focus of the study is the regional geologic aspects of the Woodbine Group, also the subject of a paper published in the AAPG Bulletin that was awarded the 2011 Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award for best published article in 2009.
