Morton Field is situated in southwestern Scott County, Mississippi, approximately four miles south of the City of Morton, and thirty miles East of Jackson, Mississippi. The field was discovered in early 1959 when Shell Oil Company drilled an 11,000 ft Cotton Valley test on this well-known gravity and subsurface feature. The discovery had ten feet of Eutaw oil sand and was completed flowing 156 barrels of 35-degree gravity oil per day through a 1/4th choke. Since 1959, twenty wells have been drilled on the structure of which eight wells produced approximately 500,000 barrels of oil.
The Morton structure is a large deep-seated salt uplift, elongated east-west trending graben that has produced approximately 300,000 barrels of oil from the Eutaw, Haynesville and Washita-Fredericksburg oil pools. Morton field has produced from relatively shallow sands, as well as some deeper sands. Approximately 200,000 barrels of oil was produced from five wells at approximately 6500 feet depth, and another estimated 300,000 was produced from additional wells in zones deeper than 6500 ft. to 14,000 ft. Most of the wells were abandoned due to economic considerations (low oil prices) while still producing at rates that are economical at today’s oil prices. Geological evidence exists from both production in former wells and from oil shows in wells that were not produced that an estimated 500,000 barrels of oil could be obtained from new drilling in the field.
