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THE UNIVERSW OF CALGARY Isotopic and Compositional Characterization of Natural Gases in the Lower and Middle Triassic Montney, Halfway, and Doig Formations, Alberta Basin Steven Desrocher A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STCTDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHY SICS CALGARY, ALBERTA DECEMBER, 1997 0 Steven Desrocher 1997 National Library Bibliothéque natiode u*m of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington OttawaON K1AW Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Lîbrary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seil reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation, ABSTRACT Natural gases in the Montney, Doig, and Halfway formations are charactenzed by variations in the proportion of methane to higher alkanes, affecting caionfic and commercial values. Stable isotope and compositional analyses suggest that wet gases in the central study am are produced via active thermogenic gas generation, with gases sourced in the Doig and Montney formations. Dry gases in shallow reservoirs near the Montney subcrop edge have a composition and isotopic signature characteristic of bacterial gas admixture. Deep Halfway and Doig gas pools on the western rnargin of the study area are extremely dry, having been generated at high source matunties. The non- hydrocarbon constituents H2S, CO2, N2 and He are present, further decreasing caiorific values. H2Sand CO2 are produced by bacterial sulfate reduction in shallow reservoirs and themochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) in deep reservoirs, both of which involve basal Doig anhydrite as a sulfate source. TSR is no ionger extant, being limited by reservoir temperatures Iess than 140°C. I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Ian Hutcheon, for both his guidance during the course of this project, and for introducing me to areas of geochemistry that have broadened my focus and contributed to my development as a scientist. Many thanks to Dr. Cynthia Riediger for discussions of Triassic source rock geochemistry, and for providing source rock data and anhydrite samples for this project. 1 also wish to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Roy Krouse and his research associates Jesusa Pontoy, Nenita Lozano, and Maria Mihailesni for obtaining isotopic data from my noxious gas samples. Dr. Charles Henderson provided worthwhile discussions of Triassic stratigraphy, and adrninistered fùnding for the Tnassic research group. 1 also wish to acknowledge Maurice Shevaiier for maintainhg analytical instrumentation and corn put ers, and for assistance in the field. Brian Fong also provided much-appreciated computer assistance. Thanks also to my fdlow graduate students in the Geochemistry and Diagenesis research group for their contributions to our initial work on Triassic fluid geochemistry, and for spontaneous network through-put testing sessions. 1 am gratefùl to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the University of Calgary for both personal financial support and project bding. NSERC operating grants to Drs. Hutcheon and Krouse provided support for isotopic work, while sarnple collection and analyses were bded through a combination of an operating grant to Dr. Hutcheon as well as an Industry Oriented Research grant iv administered by Dr. Henderson. 1 am also gratefd to NSERC for a PGS-A postgraduate schol~ship. Financiai assi stance was also provided by the AAPG Grants-in- Aid Foundation. Funding provided by the foilowing industry sponsors is also greatly appreciated: AEC West Ltd., Chevron Canada Resowces Ltd., Corexcana Ltd., Crestar Energy, Fort Smith Exploration, Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., Petro Canada Resowces Ltd., Sunwr Inc. Resources Group, Talisman Energy Inc., and Ulster Petroleum Ltd. 1 also wish to express sincere thanks to al1 the production personnel who provided permission for sarnple collection and assisted in collection procedures. Among them, 1 wish to recognize Dave Farstead, Keith Gerlach, and Kevin Lawrence of AEC West? Brent Rheaume and the operators of Talisman's Teepee Creek gas, and Pender Smith of Rigei Energy, ail of whom made extraordinary efforts to assist me with sarnple collection. Lastly, 1 would be remiss if 1 did not express my thanks to the fine individuals at Id Software. Without their outstanding produds, completion of this thesis would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page Abstract Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Tables List of Figures CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Purpose of Study 1.3 Study Area 1.4 Previous Work 1.5 Methods CHAPTER TWO: GEOLOGICAL SETTING 2.1 Stratigraphic Frarnework 2.2 Source Rock Characteristics 2.3 Present-Day Temperature Distribution CHAPTER THREE: HYDROCARBON GAS DISTRIBUTION,ORIGLN, AND MIGRATION IN THE LOWER AND MIDDLE TRIASSIC 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 Controls on hydrocarbon gas composition 3.1.2 Primary controls on gas isotope ratios 3.1.3 Post-generation controls on gas isotope ratios 3.2 Methodol ogy 3.3 Results 3.3.1 Compositional variations 3.3.2 813cvariations 3.3.3 8D variations 3.3.4 Combination of gas composition and stable isotope ratios 3 -4 Discussion 3 -5 Conclusions CHAPTER FOUR: GAS SOURING IN THE LOWER AND MIDDLE TRIASSIC 4. t Introduction 4.2 Methodology 4.3 Results 4.4 Discussion 4.5 Condusions CHAPTER 5: NITROGEN GENERATION AND DISTRfaUTION IN THE LOWER AND MIDDLE TRIASSIC 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Methodology 5.3 Results 5.4 Discussion 5.5 Conclusions CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY AND MODEL FOR GAS GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN THE LOWER AND MIDDLE TRIASSIC 6.1 Variations in Gas Composition Within Lower and Middle Tnassic Strata 6.2 Recommendations for Future Work REFERENCES APPENDIX A: HYDROCARBON COMPOSITION AND ISOTOPE DATA APPENDIX B: NON-HYDROCARBON COMPOSITION AND ISOTOPE DATA vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Heat of combustion in kilojoules per mole for CiC4alkanes. Data are fiom Bolz and Tuve (1973). p.27 Table 3.2: Ranges of compositional and isotopic rneasurements for gases wllected from the three formations of interest. p. 52 Table 3.3: Total organic carbon abundances and bulk organic matter 613c values for potential Lower and Middle Triassic source rocks (CL. Riediger, unpublished data). p. 103 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Map depicting the area of interest for the present study. p.4 Figure 1.2: Detail map of the sarnpling area, depicting the locations of wells sampled. P - 5 Figure 1.3: Splitting apparatus for pressure reduction of samples. p. 10 Figure 2.1: Isopach map for the entire Triassic succession of the Alberta Basin. p. 13 Figure 2.2: Stratigraphie chart for the Tnassic of the Northwest Plains and Deep Alberta Basin (der Riediger et al., in press). p. 14 Figure 2.3: Cross section through Tnassic formations facing northwest (after Edwards et al., 1994). p.15 Figure 2.4: Isopach map for the Montney Formation. p. 16 Figure 2.5: Combined Halfivay and Doig Formation isopach map. p. 19 Figure 2.6: Thermal manirity rnap for Lower and Middle Tnassic formations, as derived from Rock Eval pyrolysis (after Riediger et al., l99Ob). p.2 1 Figure 2.7(a): Spatial and depth distribution of reservoir temperatures in the Montney Formation. p.23 Figure 2.7(b): Spatial and depth distribution of reservoir temperatures in the Doig Formation. p.24 Figure 2.7(c): Spatiai and depth distribution of reservoir temperatures in the Hal fway Formation. p.25 Figure 3.1: Relative yields of hydrocarbon and nonhydrocarbon gases with increasing pyrolysis temperature for sapropelic (Type II) and humic (Type III) organic matter (after Hunt, 1996). p.30 Figure 3.2: Bernard et ai. (1977) diagram distinguishing bacterial from thermogenic gases on the basis of moleailar composition (describeci by the Bernard Parameter) and carbon isotope ratio of methane. p.33 Figure 3.3: Variation in 6"~of methane and C2+ concentration for gaierateci hydrocarbons as a funaion of increasing organic maturity (after Schoell, 1980 and Sdioell, 1983). p.35 Figure 3.4: Genetic classifications of natural gases defined by Schoell (1983) on the bais of methane 613c and the abundance of ethane and higher alkanes. p.36 Figure 3.5: Genetic classes of natural gases defined by Schoell (1983) on the basis of empirical6"~and 6D ranges of methane. p.37 Figure 3.6: Genetic cIassifications of natural gases defined by Schoell (1983) on the bais of the carbon isotope composition of methane and ethane. p.3 8 Figure 3.7: James (1983) diagram relating the separation of carbon isotope ratios among CI-C5alkanes to various maturity parameters indicated on the x-axis. p.4 1 Figure 3.8: Clayton diagram for the genetic characterization of natural gases. p.43 Figure 3.9: Maps depicting the regional distribution of Dry Gas Index of resewoired hydrocarbons. p.48 Figure 3.9(a): Montney Formation DG1 map. p.49 Figure 3.9(b): Doig Formation DG1 map. p.50 Figure 3.9(c): Haifway Formation DG1 map. p.5 1 Figure 3.10: Map depicting the spatial variation in Dry Gas Index of Triassic- reservoired gases, as determined from the sampling and analysis conducted in the present study.