July/Aug 6/11/05 11:03 AM Page 1
Canadian Publication Mail Contract - 40070050 $3.00 VOLUME 32, ISSUE 7 JULY/AUGUST 2005
■ Simplifying Seismic
■ Stanley Slipper Gold Medal Recipient
■ The Canadian Unique Well Identifier
■ R.J.W. Douglas Medal Recepient July/Aug 6/14/05 1:54 PM Page 2 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:03 AM Page 3
CSPG OFFICE #160, 540 - 5th Avenue SW Calgary,Alberta, Canada T2P 0M2 Tel:403-264-5610 Fax: 403-264-5898 Web: www.cspg.org Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:00pm CONTENTS Business Manager:Tim Howard Email: [email protected] Office Manager: Deanna Watkins Email: [email protected] Communications Manager: Jaimè Croft Larsen Email: [email protected] ARTICLES Conventions Manager: Lori Humphrey-Clements Email: [email protected] SIMPLIFYING SEISMIC ...... 20 Corporate Relations Manager: Kim MacLean Email: [email protected] STANLEY SLIPPER GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENT ...... 24 EDITORS/AUTHORS THE CANADIAN UNIQUE WELL IDENTIFIER ...... 27 Please submit RESERVOIR articles to the CSPG office. Submission deadline is the 23rd day of R.J.W. DOUGLAS MEDAL RECIPIENT ...... 34 the month, two months prior to issue date. (e.g., January 23 for the March issue).
To publish an article, the CSPG requires digital copies of the document. Text should be in Microsoft Word format and illustrations should DEPARTMENTS be in TIFF format at 300 dpi. For additional information on manuscript preparation, refer to the Guidelines for Authors published in the CSPG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ...... 5 Bulletin or contact the editor. TECHNICAL LUNCHEONS ...... 8 COORDINATING EDITOR & OPERATIONS Jaimè Croft Larsen DIVISION TALKS ...... 13 CSPG Tel:403-264-5610 Fax: 403-264-5898 NEW MEMBER LIST ...... 13 Email: [email protected] CALENDAR OF EVENTS ...... 14 TECHNICAL EDITOR Ben McKenzie JACK PORTER: VIGNETTES OF CANADIAN PETROLEUM GEOLOGY ...... 16 GEOCAN Energy Inc. Tel:403-261-3851 ROCK SHOP ...... 32 Email: [email protected]
ADVERTISING Kim MacLean Corporate Relations, CSPG Tel:403-264-5610, Ext 205 Email: [email protected]
Advertising inquiries should be directed to Kim MacLean. The deadline to reserve advertising space is the 23rd day of the month, two months prior to issue date. All advertising artwork should be sent directly to Kim MacLean.
The RESERVOIR is published 11 times per year by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. This includes a combined issue for the months of July/August.
Advertisements, as well as inserts, mailed with the publication are paid advertisements. No endorsement or sponsorship by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists is implied.
The CSPG Rock Shop is an attractive and affordable way to target the CSPG readership. Spaces are sold at business card sizes (3.5” wide by 2” high). To reserve space or for more information, please contact Kim MacLean at 403-264-5610, ext. 205.
The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the publisher.
Design & Layout by Sundog Printing. Printed in Canada by Sundog Printing. FRONT COVER Additional copies of the RESERVOIR are available Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Cross-bedded sandstones of the Lower Triassic (Bjorne Formation) in the Sawtooth at the CSPG office for $3.00. Range of Ellesmere Island. Photo by Derek Evoy. 3 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 4 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 5
EXECUTIVE COMMENT
A MESSAGE FROM THE ASSISTANT PROGRAM DIRECTOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESIDENT being a part of an annual convention (albeit a Jeff Packard minor part), I realized how rewarding a little Burlington bit of my extra time could be. Tel:260-8041 Fax: 269-8285 [email protected] Only weeks after Rock the Foundation ended I found myself drawn to bigger and better VICE PRESIDENT things for the 2002 Diamond Jubilee Jim Reimer Convention. With one social event in my Result Energy pocket, why not try them all? In 2002 Tel:539-5207 Fax: 234-7116 Shannon and I co-chaired the Special Events [email protected] Committee.This was our first experience of PAST PRESIDENT being on the Convention Committee, and Craig Lamb organizing sub-committees underneath us. It Husky Energy It was almost a year ago that I first considered was a great introduction to the workings of a Tel:750-1499 Fax: 750-4999 becoming a part of the CSPG Executive.When massive web of committees and individuals [email protected] asked if I would consider a voluntary position that are necessary to pull together a large for a two-year term I hesitated, not because of 5-day event. The monthly meetings which FINANCE DIRECTOR an expected time commitment but because I began a year before the event gradually Allan Schink realized I knew very little about how the increased to bi-weekly meetings and finally Berland Expl. Tel:770-2002 Fax: 770-2051 society operated. It has only been six months weekly sessions in the remaining month. I [email protected] now since I joined the Executive and already I was fortunate to meet and work with a have learned an enormous amount about the wonderful convention committee. I made a ASSISTANT FINANCE DIRECTOR structure of the CSPG, expectations of the large number of industry contacts through Marty Hewitt membership, the continual need for the planning process, and developed even Encana improvement and change, and the obstacles more working and personal friendships. Tel:645-2544 we face accomplishing society goals. [email protected] The 2004 I.C.E. Joint Conference with the My previous involvement with the CSPG was CSPG, CWLS, and CHOA societies was yet PROGRAM DIRECTOR Doug Hamilton strictly with annual convention committees, another step up in volunteering. For me, the Encana although I did reap the benefits of other factors key factor for being a part of that convention Tel:645-3193 Fax: 645-3590 of the society such as division talks, technical committee was the challenge. Once again I [email protected] luncheons, and courses. It isn’t surprising then teamed up with Shannon Nelson Evers to that I chose the Assistant Program Director co-chair the Marketing and Publicity for I.C.E. ASSISTANT PROGRAM DIRECTOR position that is composed of exactly that 2004. Not only did the position entail more Memory Marshall portfolio of committees. In this position, I have time, earlier organization, and more planning, Husky Energy the great opportunity of meeting and working but it involved the equal participation of two Tel:298-6309 Fax: 750-4960 with the numerous individuals that compose other professional societies. The first [email protected] the Continuing Education,Technical Luncheon, committee meetings started about 14 SERVICE DIRECTOR Technical Division, and Conventions months before the event date, and required a Astrid Arts committees and sub-committees. I looked at a very scheduled calendar to keep on target ConocoPhillips position on the Executive as another “baby for monthly deadlines. Unlike the previous Tel:233-3049 Fax: 231-8560 step” in my volunteer résumé.To me it is just positions Shannon and I had held, Marketing [email protected] like an extension of my past experiences with and Publicity was unique in that our efforts the CSPG, all of which were valuable in a and results were evident in the months ASSISTANT SERVICE DIRECTOR different way. leading up to the convention. Last year’s Shannon Nelson Evers experience provided the satisfaction of facing ConocoPhillips My introduction to the CSPG began with my and conquering new challenges. Tel:233-3113 Fax: 233-5374 [email protected] first volunteer position at the 2001 Rock the Foundation Convention. Still green in the oil In closing I wish to thank all the individuals COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR and gas industry I needed to ease myself into who have volunteered their time with the Ashton Embry a volunteer position so that I could balance CSPG to help make the society successful and GSC - Calgary the time commitment that it required, and a joy to be a part of. I embrace the benefits Tel:292-7125 Fax: 292-4961 maintain my work responsibilities. That first that I have experienced from volunteering [email protected] position was coordination of the well known with this society. As a member of the CSPG Core Conference wind-up, the Core Executive, I look forward to the new OUTREACH DIRECTOR Meltdown. I shared this position with challenges I will face. My reward will be giving David Middleton Petro-Canada Shannon Nelson Evers, another rookie back to the society and definitely the new Tel:296-4604 volunteer looking to get involved with the relationships I will develop with my colleagues. [email protected] CSPG. Having never planned a large industry social before, I had no way of knowing what Memory Marshall CORPORATE RELATIONS an enjoyable experience it would be! After Assistant Program Director Vacant 5 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 6
BRITISH COLUMBIA AMOCO W OJAY d-11-I d-11-I / 93-I-10 MARK TOWN b-75-K b-75-K / 94-B-16 CANHUNTER TOWN c-80-G c-80-G / 94-B-16 BC STAR NIG c-38-A c-38-A / 94-H-4
EAST COAST AMOCO WEST BONNE BAY C-23 N 46º 32’ 13” W 48º 18’ 59” LASMO BALMORAL M-32 N 43º 51’ 55” W 60º 35’ 47” PAN CANADIAN PANUKE M-79 N 43º 48’ 50” W 60º 41’ 50”
These new logs are available in Striplog form, pdf and ASCII formats. Call CANSTRAT at 403-284-1112 or visit www.canstrat.com to fi nd out more about our complete inventory of 35,000 logs located throughout North America.
#!.!$)!. 342!4)'2!0()# 3%26)#%3 ,4$ WWWCANSTRATCOM
# 1, 4639 - 6 Street NE Calgary, Alberta T2E 3Z6
Tel: 403-284-1112 Fax: 403-284-1115 [email protected]
A Division of Sigma Exploration Inc. July/Aug 6/14/05 4:59 PM Page 7
THE CSPG GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES ITS CSPG EDUCATIONAL TRUST FUND CORPORATE MEMBERS: A MESSAGE FROM THE ETF CHAIRMAN funds to advance geological education, in ABU DHABI OIL CO., LTD. (JAPAN) particular, and to enhance the profile of petroleum geology to society, in general. It’s ARCHEAN ENERGY LTD. Board of Directors and their roles have been BAKER ATLAS redefined and how the ETF invests the funds entrusted to it has been changed. BG CANADA EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION, INC.
BP CANADA ENERGY COMPANY The ETF now has a voice on the Executive through the Outreach Director, who sits on BURLINGTON RESOURCES CANADA LTD. both the Executive, as an ex-officio member, CALPINE CANADA and on the ETF Board, as a voting member.The balance of the Board members are focused on CANADIAN FOREST OIL LTD. Any of you that have attended the technical its funding targets from industry, individuals, CONOCOPHILLIPS CANADA luncheons over the last several weeks and and our geological community. We feel this have seen the advertisement for “Fresh EGGs approach will serve you, our members, well. CORE LABORATORIES CANADA LTD. Needed” in the Reservoir may have guessed DEVON CANADA CORPORATION that we were referring to Geologists and In March 2003, the ETF Board along with the Geoscientists. The “E” can represent any Executive decided to move its investment DOMINION EXPLORATION CANADA LTD. number of adjectives such as Enthusiastic, portfolio to The Calgary Foundation whose DUVERNAY OIL CORP. Energetic, Encouraged, Empowered and so on. role is the management of philanthropically derived funds.The ETF’s funds of approximately ECL CANADA Over the past several weeks, the CSPG $1 million are now invested alongside the $264 geoLOGIC systems ltd. Educational Trust Fund (ETF) has sold million currently managed by The Calgary chocolate EGGs to raise awareness of the ETF. Foundation, resulting in greater investment HUNT OIL COMPANY OF CANADA, INC. Each EGG was $5 and offered a 1 in 13 chance diversification. Currently,the ETF can withdraw HUSKY ENERGY INC. to win a number of great prizes from digital up to 5% of its funds in any one year. More cameras to iPods. Prize-winning tickets were information about The Calgary Foundation can IHS ENERGY found between the wrapper and the chocolate. be found at: www.thecalgaryfoundation.org. IMPERIAL OIL RESOURCES LIMITED The ETF is embarking on a campaign to inform The CSPG Executive has committed to LARIO OIL & GAS COMPANY our stakeholders what we do with the ETF’s transfer to the ETF any funds that are surplus MJ SYSTEMS funds and what we could do if the fund were to to its needs. As well, any surpluses derived grow. Over the next several months we will be from other CSPG events will be directed into MURPHY OIL COMPANY LTD. featuring programs that the Trust has supported the fund. With your assistance, we can help NCE RESOURCES GROUP INC. since its inception over 25 years ago. educate and employ the next generation of Petroleum Geologists. NEXEN INC. The ETF has undergone a major NORTHROCK RESOURCES LTD. reorganization over the last two years in Bruce McIntyre order to provide the Trust with the necessary ETF Chairman PENN WEST PETROLEUM LTD.
PETRO-CANADA OIL AND GAS
PETROCRAFT PRODUCTS LTD.
PRECISION WIRELINE
PRIMEWEST ENERGY INC.
SAMSON CANADA
SHELL CANADA LIMITED
SPROULE ASSOCIATES LIMITED
STARPOINT ENERGY LTD.
SUNCOR ENERGY INC.
TALISMAN ENERGY INC.
TOTAL E&P CANADA LIMITED
CORPORATE MEMBERS AS OF ETF Board Members Chuck Buckley and Claus Sitzler as well as Kim Bastedo, launch “FRESH EGGs NEEDED” MAY 24, 2005 campaign at CSPG Technical Luncheon on June 7. 7 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 8
TECHNICAL LUNCHEONS TICKET REPRESENTATIVE REGISTRATION
It is once again time to plan for the CSPG be arranged through the CSPG office. If you bi-monthly Technical Luncheons. The CSPG wish to use this option, you must register If you wish to register in this program, has nineteen luncheons planned for the with the office by September 1, 2005. please use the form below. 2005/2006 Season. There are two methods for having tickets sent directly to a ticket 2). FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT If you do not wish to use either of these representative in your office: CORPORATE MEMBERS – options tickets can be purchased directly PREPAYMENT: from the CSPG office, using cheque, cash, 1.) FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS OF CSPG For companies who are not Corporate debit, Visa, or MasterCard. Luncheon tickets Corporate Members may order a set number Members you may elect to pre-purchase a set are $28.00 plus GST each and go on sale two of tickets per luncheon, which will be number of tickets for the 2005-2006 Season’s months in advance. Please watch your couriered to you with an invoice. For orders 19 luncheons. For orders of less than Reservoir or visit www.cspg.org for luncheon of less than 10 tickets per luncheon, a 10 tickets per luncheon, a $5.00 handling fee abstracts. $5.00 handling fee will be added to the needs to be added to each mailing to cover invoice. You must take the same number of courier/mailing/ handling costs. Returns are If you have any questions please feel free to tickets for each luncheon and returns are not not accepted and extra tickets can be contact me at 264-5610 or via email at accepted. The following month’s tickets will purchased direct from the CSPG office. If you [email protected]. be sent out if the previous month’s invoice wish to use this option, you must register has been paid. Any changes to your standard with the office by September 1, 2005. number of tickets must be made well prior to Payment is required upon registration for this tickets being sent out. Additional tickets may program.
TICKET REPRESENTATIVE REGISTRATION FORM
COMPANY NAME: ______
TICKET REPRESENTATIVE NAME: ______
ADDRESS (including Postal Code): ______
PHONE NUMBER: ______FAX NUMBER: ______
E-MAIL: ______
OPTION 1 – CSPG CORPORATE MEMBERS ONLY ______NUMBER OF TICKETS FOR EACH LUNCHEON For Ticket Orders of less than 10 tickets for each lunch, a $5/month Handling fee will be added to your invoice.
OPTION 2 – PREPAYMENT ______NUMBER OF TICKETS FOR EACH LUNCHEON Prepayment due: ______Tickets x $29.96 (incl. GST) X 19 (Total # of luncheons) = $______If less than 10 tickets for each lunch ordered, a handling fee of $53.50 ($5.00 plus GST per month) is included in this payment.
TOTAL PREPAYMENT ENCLOSED IS:
$ ______(TICKETS) + $ ______(HANDLING FEE) = $ ______
We accept Visa,MasterCard, or cheque as payment. Please return your If paying by credit card: completed form to: Jaimè Croft Larsen, Card #: ______Expiry Date: ______Communications Manager 160, 540 – 5th Avenue SW Signature: ______Calgary,Alberta T2P 0M2
8 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 9
SEPTEMBER LUNCHEON
The Beaufort Mackenzie Basin: the potential to exceed the resource size of BIOGRAPHY assessing the future resource previously discovered fields in the Beaufort Peter Graham (peter.graham@devoncanada potential Mackenzie. These new 3-D data sets have .com) is an exploration geologist with Devon allowed for a more comprehensive Canada – Frontiers. He has worked the past SPEAKER understanding of the basin’s sequence five years in the Beaufort Mackenzie Basin Peter Graham stratigraphy and have been effective in with the previous ten years in the BC foothills, identifying new play fairways and reservoir NWT, and the Yukon. He is a graduate of the AUTHORS intervals. A reassessment of the petroleum University of Calgary with B.Sc. degrees in Peter Graham and Christoper L. Bergquist system has notably enhanced the basin’s geology and zoology. richness and supports a greatly expanded 11:30 am range of prospectivity, and innovation in Christopher L. Bergquist (chris.bergquist@ Thursday, September 8, 2005 Arctic operations has significantly lowered devoncanada.com) is an exploration geologist costs and increased environmental with Devon Canada – Frontiers. He has TELUS CONVENTION CENTRE protection. worked 25 years in exploration and CALGARY, ALBERTA development, in both clastics and carbonates. Though it is still early in this current He started his career with Gulf Oil in the Gulf Please note: exploration cycle, significant advances have of Mexico,West Africa, and Canada, and then The cut-off date for ticket sales is been made in understanding the basin’s consulted internationally. He is currently with 1:00 pm,Tuesday, September 6th. complete hydrocarbon potential. If a final Devon Energy working in the Beaufort Ticket price is $28.00 + GST. agreement can be reached towards the Mackenzie Basin, where he has ten years’ timely completion of the Mackenzie Valley overall experience, and the Mackenzie Oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Pipeline the Beaufort Mackenzie will play a Corridor. Chris has a B.A. in Earth Sciences Mackenzie Basin has seen a recent key role in North America’s energy supply. from Dartmouth College. resurgence as energy companies attempt to tap this basin’s proven resource potential in light of the current North American gas market. After a nearly ten-year operational hiatus and beginning in 1999, over 4 million acres of land has been leased with associated work commitments in excess of 500 million dollars, 17 new 3-D seismic surveys have been acquired (including one
major offshore survey), fourteen new wells have been drilled, and major advancement has been realized on the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
But the Beaufort Mackenzie is a considerably different landscape than that during initial phases of exploration in the 1970s and 80s. Challenges today result from isolation by geography and from infrastructure. In particular, the once sizeable northern-based oilfield service network that supplied early arctic operations has diminished to a remaining few stalwart operators. The
extensive marine drilling fleet that was developed by Canmar and Beaudril has been either sold and moved to other regions of the world, has been dismantled, or has been cold stacked and left to the harsh Arctic environment. Canadian Stratigraphic Services (2000) Ltd. But the opportunities that remain today are A Division of Sigma Explorations Inc. significant, though also different than what 1, 4639 - 6 Street NE the Beaufort Mackenzie initially offered. Calgary, Alberta T2E 3Z6 Preliminary exploration was focused toward Tel: 403-284-1112 oil but discovered mostly gas. Early Fax: 403-284-1115 explorers relied on an extensive grid of 2-D #!.!$)!. 342!4)'2!0()# [email protected] seismic, but newly acquired 3-D surveys 3%26)#%3 ,4$ www.canstrat.com have clearly imaged new play types that have 9 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 10
www.bakerhughes.com FOCUSFOCUS enabledenabled ECLIPSECLIPS -- loweringlowering thethe totaltotal costcost forfor everyevery openopen holehole jobjob
FOCUS enabled ECLIPS reduces the total cost (rig time plus logging) of a complete FE program. The short FOCUS logging suite (array resistivity, density, neutron porosity, acoustic) logs at 18M/min and can be combined with full service options such as Earth Imager, HDIP & XMAC. Fast logging speeds, reduced over-hole requirements, full service capability - the result driving down your open logging costs without compromising your formation evaluation program. For additional information contact your Baker Atlas representative at 403-537-3400.
FOCUS enabled ECLIPS – efficiency, accuracy, & full service, every well, every time. Baker Atlas © 2005 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All rights reserved. ATL-05-8634 © 2005 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All rights reserved. July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 11
SEPTEMBER LUNCHEON
Operation Franklin and further explore and understand our high BIOGRAPHY Its Legacy Arctic. Bill Kerr was a summer assistant on Operation Franklin while he was a student at the SPEAKERS PART 2. AFTER OPERATION FRANKLIN University of Alberta. He later completed a J.W. (Bill) Kerr and Speaker: Christopher Harrison, Ph.D. at Columbia University and then taught at Christopher Harrison Geological Survey of Canada Queens. He subsequently joined the GSC and worked in the Arctic for 19 years. He published 11:30 am Operation Franklin provided a framework many reports on the Arctic and wrote a popular Thursday, September 22, 2005 geological understanding of the central book on the Frank Slide. He consulted Arctic Islands that led to 25 years of internationally from 1980 to 1997. Recently, he TELUS CONVENTION CENTRE successful oil and gas exploration, the built a self-storage business in Calgary, which he CALGARY, ALBERTA development of the Bent Horn Oil Field now owns and operates. on Cameron Island, and Canada’s Please note: northernmost mine, the Polaris zinc-lead Christopher Harrison worked for ten years in The cut-off date for ticket sales is deposit on Little Cornwallis Island. mineral exploration in the Arctic and across 1:00 pm, Monday, September 19th. Map units defined as a result of Operation Canada before joining the GSC in 1984. His Ticket price is $28.00 + GST. Franklin fieldwork led to the first systematic Ph.D. from Rice University, Houston, examined description of strata ranging from the structure of the fold belt on Melville Island. PART 1. OPERATION FRANKLIN Proterozoic to Tertiary in age. Descriptions He has spent the last 23 years studying and Speaker: J.W. (Bill) Kerr, include strata of the Sverdrup Basin, which mapping the geology of Canada’s Arctic Islands Formerly Geological Survey of Canada hosts vast reserves of gas and some oil in and offshore. His most recent work has been on the Triassic and Jurassic strata, and coal in the salt diapirs and salt-withdrawal minibasins Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1955, the those of the Cretaceous and Paleogene. of western Axel Heiberg Island, an area first Geological Survey of Canada conducted Geological maps, based on the studied during Operation Franklin. Operation Franklin, the first helicopter- interpretation of trimet imagery, provided a supported exploration program in the reconnaissance-scale picture of the Canadian Arctic Islands. It was a Cenozoic deformation of Ellesmere Island, reconnaissance program, covering about salt diapirs of the Ringnes and Axel Heiberg 200,000 square miles, about the same area as islands, Devonian salt-based folds of France.The project used a DC-3 aircraft, two Bathurst Island, and the basement-involved Sikorsky S55 helicopters, and three dog structures of the Cornwallis fold belt and Now available for import teams. Boothia Uplift. into ACCUMAP and other Four base camps were established, and as The geology of this vast region is now mapping programs: work was completed the group moved from understood from the combined efforts of 1) New 2004 Version: Glauconitic one to the next. Key areas, selected from industry, government, and university-based Channel Trends - Southern and central trimetregon air photos, were studied by research. The contributions from industry Alberta, West-central Saskatchewan two-man teams. These teams were put into are derived in large part from reflection- 2) New: Lloydminster Reservoir Trends fly camps by helicopter and they mapped the seismic profiling and exploratory drilling - Eastern Alberta areas they could reach on foot and worked during the period between 1960 and 1985. out the stratigraphy. University-based research has focussed on 3) Mississippian Subcrops and Devonian topics such as sedimentology, sequence Reef Edges - Alberta, NE BC, NWT The results of Operation Franklin were stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, organic and Saskatchewan published in Memoir 320 of the Geological geochemistry, fission-track analysis, 4) Colony/Sparky Reservoir Trends Survey of Canada. It contains a chapter for geomagnetics, and halokinetic processes. - East - central Alberta each study area, and chapters that integrate Government-supported geoscience, mostly 5) Bluesky-Dunlevy Reservoir Trends the knowledge learned about them. Many of executed by the Geological Survey of - NE BC the current formations and concepts were Canada (GSC) and supported logistically by established by the project. the Polar Continental Shelf Project, has 6) Halfway-Doig Shoreline Trends provided an up-to-date regional-scale - Peace River Arch, NE BC The geologists did a lot of walking from understanding of bedrock and surficial 7) Charlie Lake Siphon, Cecil and North their fly camps, but the study areas still look geology. GSC Calgary maintains a Pine Reservoir Trends - NE BC small and scattered when they are plotted permanent archive of collected samples, well All edges are formatted as map on a map of the Arctic. We jokingly referred cuttings, core, geophysical, geochemical and features for use in Accumap and to this phase of exploration as “postage biostratigraphic data, and published and ESRI Shape fi les for other programs. stamp geology.” unpublished reports. Although field-based For more information contact: research continues at a modest level, For those of us who were on Operation government efforts are now concentrated Mike Sherwin 403-263-0594 Franklin, it was an unforgettable adventure. on providing public access to current and email: [email protected] It also was a scientific milestone that set the archived information using GIS and www.sherwingeological.com stage for government and industry to standardized web delivery methods. 11 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 12
PETRA_
depths visions innovations results
that exceed
all
others. now.
CONTOURING CROSS SECTIONS MAPPING OPTIONS 3D VISUALIZATION DECLINE CURVES Faulted contours New Unassigned Tops Expanded GIS Functions Deviated wellbores Compute EUR, RR, etc. Isopachs Digital and/or Raster Bubble maps Digital logs Hyperbolic or exp. Volumetrics Geocolumn shading Production charts Grid surfaces Rate/Time or Cum P/Z Grid operations Stratigraphic/Structural Log curves Tops, Shows and Perfs User defined Econ. Limit New flexing options Shade between crossover Posted data Land grid overlay User defined Extrap. Time Dipmeter data Highlighted Symbols Map images
PETRA® delivers the industry’s only easy-to-use and affordable integrated solution for today’s work- flows. It provides multi-user access to large projects through geological, petrophysical and engineering analysis tools. The PetraSeis™ option extends PETRA® into 2D/3D seismic interpretation with practical tools such as RasterSeis™. Download a trial version at www.geoplus.com, or call us at 888-738-7265 (Houston: 713-862-9449 / Calgary: 403-264-9523) for more product information.
® THERE IS A DIFFERENCE PETRA
12 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 13
DIVISION TALKS SEDIMENTOLOGY DIVISION
Pervasive dolomitization with accomplished by long-distance migration of more modern techniques to identify the subsequent hydrothermal halite-saturated brines during the Late mechanisms of hydrocarbon reservoir origin and alteration in the Clarke Lake Devonian to Mississippian. Fluid inclusion alteration in carbonates, the origin of MVT gas field, Middle Devonian Slave homogenization temperatures suggest 150°C sulphide deposits, and the evolution of Point Formation, British (uncorrected) to 190°C (corrected) at the subsurface fluids. Over the past seven years, Columbia, Canada time of matrix dolomitization. This differs much of this work has been published in 8 markedly from most of the dolomitized refereed papers, 4 technical reports, and 14 SPEAKER* Devonian reefs in the Alberta Basin south of conference proceedings. He is a member of Jeff Lonnee* and Hans Machel the Peace River Arch (PRA), where pervasive CSPG, AAPG, SEPM, GAC, and EGS. Department of Earth & Atmospheric dolomitization was accomplished by advection Sciences, University of Alberta of slightly modified seawater at temperatures HANS G. MACHEL is a Professor at the of about 60–80°C. Department of Earth and Atmospheric 12:00 Noon Sciences, University of Alberta. His research Monday, July 18, 2005 The replacive and cement saddle dolomites, as involves carbonate/evaporite facies and well as the associated dissolution and diagenesis, low-temperature geochemistry, and Nexen Annex Theatre recrystallized matrix dolomites, at Clarke Lake petroleum geology of Alberta, particularly +15 Level, North of C-Train Platform are hydrothermal alteration products of the dolomitization, cathodoluminescence, and 801 - 7th Avenue SW matrix dolomites, and formed from the diagenetic redox-processes relevant to sour gas, Calgary, Alberta invasion of a hydrothermal gypsum-saturated sulfur and MVT sulfide deposits, and magnetic brine during periods of extremely high heat exploration for hydrocarbons. He is a member The Clarke Lake gas field in British Columbia, flow and regional plate-margin tectonics in the of 10 professional organizations and associate Canada, is hosted in pervasively dolomitized Late Devonian to Mississippian. Fluid inclusion editor of 2 international journals. He was Middle Devonian carbonates of the Slave homogenization temperatures suggest president of EGS (1994-6) and SLMS (1995-6). Point Formation. The Clarke Lake Field hydrothermal alteration occurred between Honours include the CSPG Link Award (1989), consists mostly of pervasive matrix dolomite 230°C (uncorrected) and 267°C (corrected), a Humboldt Research Fellowship (1993-4), and some saddle dolomite, the latter varying which are significantly higher than the CSPG Medal of Merit (1994), and the Klepser in volume from about 20 to locally 80 percent maximum temperature of about 190°C Lecturer Award (1999). over any 10 m core interval. Some of the attained by the Slave Point Formation during saddle dolomite is replacive, some is cement, burial. The sources of the halite- and gypsum- INFORMATION and both are associated with dissolution saturated brines are Middle Devonian Talks are free – don’t forget to bring your lunch! porosity and recrystallized matrix dolomite. evaporite depositional environments roughly A rigorous petrographic and geochemical 200 km south and/or east of Clarke Lake, near Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts will be provided. If examination of the reservoir dolomites was the PRA. you are interested in joining the Sedimentology conducted which included stable and Division e-mail listing which currently provides radiogenic isotope analyses, fluid inclusion BIOGRAPHY luncheon reminders, or if you care to suggest a microthermometry, crush-leach analyses of JEFF LONNEE is a Ph.D. Candidate at the technical topic or present a talk to the division, fluid inclusions, trace and rare earth element Department of Earth and Atmospheric please contact Scott Rose at (403) 875-7673 or chemistry, and calculation of thermal Sciences, University of Alberta, under the [email protected]. maturation, as well as consideration of the supervision of Dr. Hans G. Machel. He size and shape of the dolomitized rock body. previously obtained an M.Sc. (1999) and an Visit the sedimentology division website for honours B.Sc. (1997) from the University of extended abstracts, forum discussion, photo The integration of all data indicates that Windsor, Ontario. His research involves the gallery, upcoming events, and much more at: pervasive matrix dolomitization was application of a wide array of traditional and http://www.cspgsedimentology.org.
NEW MEMBER LIST
Kelly J. Arnold Daylight Energy Trust Ltd. Amr Khedr Rasheed Petroleum Services
Neil B. Doucette Albian Sands Energy Inc. Clayton R. Roark Koch Exploration Canada Corp
Edwin H. Gomez Xavier Roca ArgemiUniversity Of Western Ontario
Jiuhe Gong SINOPEC Star Petroleum Co. Ltd. Fachang Wang Bearspaw Petroleum Limited
Ted W. Hannah Albian Sands Energy Inc.
13 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 14
2005 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
DATE: August 8-11, 2005 DATE: September 20-22, 2005 EVENT: Earth System Processes 2 EVENT: Upper Cretaceous Shelf and Shoreface Sandstones: LOCATION: Calgary,Alberta Montana Outcrops and Alberta Basin Cores - CSPG INFORMATION: Sponsored by the Geological Society of America and Fieldtrip the Geological Association of Canada LOCATION: Fort Benton, Montana Web site: www.geosociety.org/meetings/esp2 INFORMATION: For more information and to register visit Theme Session Proposal submission deadline: www.cspg.org. September 15, 2004 Abstract submission deadline:April 26, 2005 DATE: September 21-23, 2005 Description: International meeting, interdisciplinary EVENT: The Belly River Formation in Southern & Central focus. Earth’s surface environment is a complex web of Alberta,Workshop & Fieldtrip - CSPG Fieldtrip feedbacks among the biota, oceans, atmosphere, LOCATION: Brooks - Milk River,Alberta lithosphere, and cryosphere. ESP 2 will discuss INFORMATION: For more info and to register visit www.cspg.org. advances made in the last four years toward better understanding the nature of these feedbacks in the DATE: October 28-30, 2005 modern world, how they have emerged and evolved EVENT: AUGC over the Earth’s history and how they will respond to LOCATION: Memorial University of Newfoundland, human perturbations in the future. St. John’s, Newfoundland For more information, contact: Diane Matt INFORMATION: For more info please email [email protected] P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, 1-303-357-1014 (phone), 1-303-357-1074 (fax), DATE: November 13-17, 2005 [email protected] (e-mail) EVENT: SETAC North America 26th Annual Meeting LOCATION: Baltimore, Maryland DATE: September 12-16, 2005 INFORMATION: The Society of Environmental Toxicology and EVENT: Upper Devonian Reef-Strata and Hydrothermal Chemistry (SETAC) will hold the SETAC North Dolomitization in the Southern Northwest Territories - America 26th Annual Meeting at the Baltimore CSPG Fieldtrip Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland, LOCATION: Hay River & Area, NWT November 13-17, 2005. This year’s theme is INFORMATION: For more information and to register visit “Environmental Science in a Global Society: SETAC’s www.cspg.org. Role in the Next 25 Years.” More information can be found on the Society’s website: www.setac.org.
CANADIAN SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGY CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 2006 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE In accordance with Article VI, subparagraph (a) of the By-Laws, the Nominating Committee hereby calls for Nominations to Stand for Election to the 2006 Executive Committee of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.
Nominations can be made in two ways: 1) Formal Nominations are to be made in writing, signed by at least twenty-five members in good standing and endorsed by the nominee who is consenting to stand for office. Candidates nominated in this fashion will automatically be added to the Nomination Slate. Nominations should be forwarded to the CSPG office by September 15, 2005. The slate of candidates will be published in the November Reservoir and the election will take place on November 27, 2005. 2) Informal Nominations can be made via email or letter; please confirm that the nominee is willing to stand for the office of choice and send to CSPG Office to the attention of the Past President. Candidates nominated in this fashion will be considered for addition to the Nomination Slate by the Nominations Committee. The following vacancies exist for 2006: • Vice President • Assistant Finance Director • Assistant Program Director • Assistant Services Director Successful candidates for the Directorships will serve two-year terms and the elected Vice President, a third one-year term as Past President. Interested parties should contact the office for details and general requirements of service on the Executive.
14 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 15
20052005 C.S.P.G.C.S.P.G. StructuralStructural DivisionDivision FieldField TripTrip
Organizers: Thomas Kubli (TEK Consulting Ltd.) and Elizabeth Atkinson (Petro-Canada)
This field trip will give us the opportunity to study structural and stratigraphic relationships of Neoproterozoic and Cambrian strata at Dauntless Mountain, in the northern Purcell Mountains.
Features to study include: • Stratigraphy of the upper Horsethief Creek Group (Windermere) and Lower Cambrian Hamill Group and Donald Formation • Geometry related to Lower Cambrian extension, including unconformities and related Volcanics • Folding and thrusting related to Laramide compression • Late Eocene extensional faults • A Diatreme cutting through Cambrian strata • Historical and current placer gold mining operations (time permitting)
This field trip features a day-long hike off-trail with an elevation gain of about 700 metres. It includes about 2 hours of bushwhacking and various traverses on loose scree. Only healthy, sure-footed hikers are encouraged to participate.
Approximate trip schedule: Friday, August 26 6:00 p.m. leave Downtown Calgary 9:30 p.m. arrive Golden. B.C. – Ponderosa Motor Inn
Saturday, August 27 8:00 a.m. leave Golden and drive to Dogtooth Mountains 9:00 a.m. start hike 5:00 p.m. return from hike and drive to Calgary 10:00 p.m. arrive Downtown Calgary
Cost of accommodation is approximately $40. Contact Elizabeth Atkinson at 296-3694 You will also be responsible for your own meals. or [email protected] to sign up. Transportation will be provided. DEADLINE AUGUST 19, 2005 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 16
JACK PORTER- VIGNETTES OF CANADIAN PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
Continued from the June Reservoir AFTERMATH OF MARTIN Mendoza had commented in his report, a seamen, miners, artisans, soldiers, and FROBISHER’S THREE VOYAGES TO reference to Meta Incognita, citing: “it is gentlemen adventurers, who had accompanied META INCOGNITA Continued: incomprehensible that a land so cold as this Frobisher on his third voyage to Meta can produce anything.” He was alluding to the Incognita, some 40 deaths had occurred. For In June 1578, as Martin Frobisher’s fleet was belief, being prevalent at the time, that the the most part their demises were the result of sailing to Meta Incognita, spies for the Spanish planets, of which both the sun and moon were debilitating conditions attributed to an Ambassador to England, Bernardino de included, influenced the development of inadequate diet, compounded by prolonged Mendoza, had surreptitiously obtained pieces specific metals, i.e., the Sun, gold; the Moon, exhaustion from working in an inhospitable of “ore” representative of the 200 tons silver; Mercury, quick-silver; et cetera. environment. To a lesser extent, some transported to England the previous year.The Accordingly, gold was to be found in hot mortalities were the result of accidents Spanish, on assaying the samples, found them countries where the Sun’s rays created the involving mining operations. As well several to be worthless. This conclusion made King greatest intensity of heat. The Spanish, unfortunate mariners were washed overboard Phillip II suspect that the English had been understandably, believed they had tangible during storms while crossing the “Ocean Sea” forwarned of his agents tactics and proof of this concept, a-propos their gold (North Atlantic). consequently created a ruse by substituting wealth derived from the equatorial regions of rocks devoid of precious metals. Following the South America (1938, Adams, Frank Dawson: The fact that only two of Frobisher’s 15 return of Frobisher’s fleet in 1578 with his The Birth and Development of the Geological vessels failed to return to England on his third containment of 1350 tons of “ore,” Mendoza Sciences, repub. 1952, Dover Publications, Inc., voyage would indicate a rather remarkable submitted to Phillip II a precise report of all p. 282). Interestingly, Martin Frobisher alluded accomplishment. Apart from Frobisher’s aspects of Frobisher’s third voyage. It left little to the gold potential of Meta Incognita, based flagship Ayde, which was characterized as a doubt that an insider, who had accompanied on a entomological observation that the 200-ton “tall ship,” the rest of the fleet’s ships Frobisher,had betrayed his fellow adventurers. abundance of spiders found there are: “as were 100 tons or less.The 20-25 ton barques: Robert Denham, the English assayer, was many affirme, are signes of great store of Gabriel and Michael were owned by the suspected of being the spy, but in reality may Golde.” (2001, McDermott, James --- p. 157). Company of Cathay, while the Ayde was on have served as a double-agent (Ibid.: 2001, loan from Queen Elizabeth.The major portion McDermott, James --- p.246). Among the more than 400 men, comprised of were owned by merchants who were shareholders in the Company. These vessels had previously been engaged in maritime commerce to friendly ports along the European coast.The Dennis (Denys), which was one of the three barques in Frobisher’s fleet,of 30 tons, sank, after being crushed by ice, at the entrance to “Mistaken Strait” (Hudson Strait). The buss Emanuel of Bridgewater was a sturdily built 100-ton freighter of its day. She met her fate on her homeward journey after reaching the European shore, being blown aground in Smerwick Harbour on the Dingle Peninsula in southwest Ireland. The testimony to her disaster was the 110 tons of Meta Incognita “ore” discharged from her ruptured hold and strewn along the beach. Neither mishap sustained any loss of life. ... and get involved. Frobisher’s leadership prevailed despite the setbacks his ships endured in the ice- congested coastal water fronting the barren Check out a new CSPG initiative.... terrain of Meta Incognita. The respect and confidence engendered by Frobisher Volunteer Source precluded any mutinous acts by his seamen, despite the hardships they endured. Likewise @ www.cspg.org his fleet’s captains and master held him in high regard, not so much as a navigator, since his An EASY way to slide on in! mathematical skills were lacking, but because of his seamanship prowess and his perseverance in the face of danger. His Vo l u nt e e r To d a y ! concern for his seamen was foremost, as evident by his persistent search, during his second and third voyages for his five seamen 16 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 17
who had been abducted by natives, during his Frobisher’s third voyage. Its contents only compensation for his services (Ibid.: 2001, first voyage. On September 1, 1578, being the served to reinforce the censuring of Frobisher. McDermott, James --- p. 248). scheduled date of the fleet’s departure from Notwithstanding, George Best and Thomas Beares Sound, a sudden storm had placed the Ellis, both of whom accompanied Frobisher on Frobisher, in desperate need of money, had last of the miners on Sussex Island in jeopardy his third voyage, wrote candid accounts of this solicited Queen Elizabeth, early in 1579, to of being abandoned. However, Frobisher and final expedition to Meta Incognita. obtain an appointment in the service of the his small crew utilizing a ship’s pinnace braved Crown. Elizabeth, still harbouring her the storm and by gaining access to the beach, George Best’s True Discourse, was a narrative displeasure with him, as the result of the Meta rescued the desperate miners. of all three voyages. He had sailed in the Incognito mining fiasco, ignored his request. barque Gabriel in 1576, the flagship Ayde in The admiration and acclaim for Martin 1577 and the Anne Francis in 1578. Thomas Thomas Allen,one of the Company of Cathay’s Frobisher by the 60 Company of Cathay’s Ellis’ account is titled:True Report of the Third adventurers, had been appointed the adventurers, along with Queen Elizabeth, who and Last Voyage into Meta Incognita. Another Company’s treasurer in late 1578, to replace had together financed his third voyage to Meta narrative of Frobisher’s second voyage, written Michael Lok. His mandate was to liquidate the Incognita, was to be short-lived. Their by Dionyse Settle and titled:A True Report of assets of the Company to pay off its creditors. realization, following the bulk sample assays at the Laste Voyage into the West and Northwest When Allen listed the sale of the Company’s the Dartford furnaces, that the 1,350 tons of Regions, was published in 1577. Unlike barque Gabriel, Frobisher, through sentimental “ore” contained in the holds of the 13 Selman’s diatribe, all three authors extolled attachment, was desperate to purchase the returning vessels contained neither gold nor the tenacity of Frobisher and the maritime vessel that brought him as well as his silver caused the investors of the failed skills of his fellow officers in overcoming remaining crew of 13 men and boys safely enterprise to place the blame on Frobisher. almost insurmountable hazards. home to England following his first voyage to Meta Incognita. Much to his disappointment, Frobisher’s admonishment was exacerbated Attempts by the Company of Cathay to she was knocked down for a mere £80, a sum by a report prepared by Edward Selman, who reimburse their creditors were made at the Frobisher was incapable of meeting (Ibid.: as Michael Lok’s agent, served as notary on expense of Frobisher’s crew members 2001, McDermott, James --- p. 261). Frobisher’s third voyage, being assigned to the who had accompanied him on his third voyage latter’s flagship, Ayde. Selman had stepped to Meta Incognita. Following the The revelation of the mining fiasco and beyond his authority, when on July 30, 1578, compensations to the miners and artisans, the attendant financial debacle suffered by the while the Ayde lay at anchor off Anne Warwick residual was allotted to the seamen. Company of Cathay’s Meta Incognita project, (Kodlunarn) Island, he had interfered with The measly sums, usually less than £1, had extinguished Frobisher’s short-lived orders given by Master Charles Jackman to his were a gross violation of their agreed limelight. Without a commission from his boatswain and quartermaster. Frobisher, who remuneration. In some instances, a cap or Queen or financial support from his former was dining with Captain Edward Fenton, on other article of used clothing was included to associates, he was, once again, taken to his the latter’s Judith at the time, became aware of justify the seaman’s shortfall. In one case, a familiar pursuits involving pirating/ privateering. the dispute on returning to his Ayde. Frobisher crewman, having died shortly after However, by July 1, 1585 Sir Francis Drake was Consequently, he rebuked Selman for his returning to England, had the cost of the food commissioned by Queen Elizabeth, with unauthorized interference. The severe he consumed during his illness, as well as his instructions from the Admiralty, to obtain the reprimand by the mercurial Frobisher caused burial expenses, deducted from his allotted release of English grain ships held by Phillip II the rankled Selman to be accusatory of wage. Frobisher and his fellow officers also felt authority in Spanish ports. Drake’s mandate Frobisher’s ineptness as the commander of the the brunt of the Company’s insolvency.As late also included the interception of Spanish third voyage to Meta Incognita. His vilification as March, 1580, the latter was still in arrears of merchant ships and treasure galleons on the was contained in his “official” version of Frobisher’s stipulated £25 per month (Continued on page 19...)
3TAY ON 4ARGET '%/ .!6)'!4%
'EO NAVIGATION IS AN EXCITING NEW AND INNOVATIVE SERVICE THAT SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCES COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH HORIZONTAL DRILLING AND INCREASES PRODUCTION REVENUE 9OUR RESERVOIR MODEL IS USED TO STEER THE DRILLING DIRECTLY TOWARDS THE SWEET SPOT WHILE YOU MONITOR AND DIRECT THE PATH OF DRILLING IN 2EAL 4IME 7HILE $RILLING FROM THE CONVENIENCE OF YOUR OFlCE OR ANY OTHER LOCATION #ALL FOR MORE INFORMATION
5NITED /IL 'AS #ONSULTING ,TD TH !VENUE 37 #ALGARY !LBERTA #ANADA 40 2 WWWUOGCCOM
17 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 18
18 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 19
(...Continued from Page 17) toll from the illness had reached 500 victims. Frobisher, in a spirit of compassion, were only open sea during their course to and from Forced ransoms, following stages of pillaging too pleased to deliver them from their plight. Spain’s New World settlements.By pillaging and by Drake’s forces in Santo Domingo and Unfortunately, three of their fellow colonists razing their fortified colonies, the English had Cartagena, on Colombia’s north coast, finally were inadvertently left behind. A second hoped to defuse Spains expansionist desires terminated with the utter destruction of St. colony was established on Roanoke Island in north along the Atlantic seaboard. Drake, who Augustine’s town and fortifications. The 1587, with Captain John White being was admiral of the 25-vessel fleet, one member latter, located on Florida’s north coast, was appointed governor by Sir Walter Raleigh. of which was Elizabeth’s Ayde; appointed Martin the most northerly fortified colony of However, all members of this second colony Frobisher as his vice-admiral. He was to Spain’s New World. had vanished by 1591. command a squadron of 13 vessels, the Primrose being his flagship. Drake’s military Drake decided to have his fleet sail north The value of the booty obtained by Drake personnel comprised 2,000 soldiers. The along the Atlantic seaboard in search of the during the West Indies raids amounted to expedition embarked from Portsmouth on newly established colony located on Roanoke £60,000. After payment of wages and sundry September 14, 1585. Unfortunately for Drake, Island, (now part of North Carolina). It had expenses, some £40,000 remained, which a fleet of 17 Spanish galleons, laden with gold been established by Sir Walter Raleigh in amount, when prorated to the adventurers and other great treasures had arrived at their August of the previous year and was the first who had financed the expedition, resulted in a home ports just prior to Drake’s fleet having English settlement in North America, in spite rather modest return of £6 per share. departed from Portsmouth. of its abortive existence. Sighting a large The fleet’s failure to intercept and capture a bonfire on a bank near the settlement, Drake bullion-laden Spanish galleon was, Drake’s expedition to the West Indies was and his fellow officers utilized their ship’s undoubtedly, a disappointment to the accompanied by a natural disaster in which at pinnaces to enter Roanoke Sound and were expedition’s shareholders (Ibid.: 2001, least 20 percent of his fleet’s personnel warmly greeted by the colony’s governor, McDermott, James --- pp. 297-299, 306-308, succumbed to a highly contagious disease Ralph Lane. It was apparent that the colonists 316-318). Martin Frobisher’s statue had yet to believed contracted in Santiago, Verde Islands were in a predicament, being short of be resurrected by his Queen and with his during the plundering of the town.The sickness, provisions, since the anticipated supply ship remuneration intact, he decided to return to resulting in the victims’ deaths, was diagnosed as was yet to arrive and the natives were Yorkshire, the place of his early childhood. His the “burning ague” which ships’ surgeons of the becoming increasingly more hostile. Lane and designs now, at age 47, were on becoming a day believed was attributed to tropical vapours his councillors, following their meeting, successful landowner and enjoy a more emanating from foul evening air. By the time besought Drake to transport members of the bucolic lifestyle. Drake’s fleet arrived at Santo Domingo, entire colony, which consisted of 106 Hispaniola (Dominican Republic) the mortality individuals, back to England. Both Drake and To be continued...
19 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 20
Simplifying Seismic
Chapter 7 Dr. Easton Wren
2D and 3D Seismic This is the seventh chapter in a series, which will explain the seismic business in simple terms. Designed specifically for geological personnel in the oil industry it should provide a forum for Figure 7-1. 2D seismic line acquisition (courtesy:Amoco).
information and questions. “2D” SEISMIC 2D seismic by definition involves a line of It is something of a paradox but “2D” was This installment will focus on geophones with the shot points positioned at always 3D since the geophones could not be regular intervals along the line (Figure 7-1). designed to listen/record only signals which the differences between 2D This set-up is referred to as “in-line” and was moved in a vertical plane or curtain under the the traditional practice until the onset of 3D line of geophones.This is physically impossible and 3D seismic and the in the late 1960s when two or more parallel since sound travels as a three-dimensional lines of geophones” listened” while the shots wavefield and therefore the geophones would relative benefits of both. were systematically placed at intervals record signals which came from any direction. between them.This ultimately led to multiple Thus, the traditional 2D line of seismic is a parallel lines of geophones laid out as a grid mixture of information coming from all INTRODUCTION and all geophones listened to the response to directions, including the vertical plane. The Most people in the oil industry are familiar each individual shot (Figure 7-2). best analogy once again is one face of the with the expressions “2D” and “3D” but when these terms are used in reference to seismic data, perhaps only geophysicists are aware of the significance of these and the differences between them.
While “2D” has been around since the earliest days of the seismic business in the 1920s and “3D” has its historical origins in the 1960s, one is not necessarily “better” than the other. Both have pros and cons in terms of seismic imaging and cost factors and both should be considered in terms of exploration objectives.
3D seismic has become very “trendy” and is certainly a sweetheart of the news media, but there are numerous poor quality 3D data sets, the quality usually being a function of the acquisition/processing design and the available budget. Since one usually gets what one pays for,the old adage of “go first class and cry only once” applies. Figure 7-2. 3D seismic line acquisition (courtesy:Amoco). 20 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 21
THE LIVING MODEL TRACKING AND GUIDING YOUR RESERVOIR DEVELOPMENT: THE ULTIMATE WORKFLOW SOLUTION . 04-IS-354
Figure 7-3.An unordered Rubik cube contains data from several sides. mark of Schlumberger
Rubik cube, which contains information from the other faces unless it is solved (Figure 7-3). This led to utter confusion when drilling a structural anomaly on a 2D line resulted in a enabled and design is a service i target horizon being regional. The anomaly was imaged by projection onto the seismic section and was described as “sideswipe” or, more correctly, as “out-of-the-plane”. In reef plays such as the Rainbow Lake Keg River (Figure 7-4), there were numerous dry holes and a prevailing feeling that “seismic did not work very well”. Companies resorted to sequential series of 2D lines with tight grids THE LIVING MODELTM WORKFLOW FACILITATES A to image the reef spatially but mistakes were commonplace. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO SUBSURFACE CHARACTERIZATION—FROM SEISMIC TO SIMULATION. “3D” SEISMIC Instead of each domain passing its results down the chain, This problem of spatial resolution is almost an asset team can now share the same reservoir model totally eliminated with 3D acquisition and and focus on the areas that really impact day-to-day
processing. In the field, the process generates GeoFrame, ECLIPSE, and Merak are registered trademarks of Schlumberger. chlumberger. business decisions. a cube or volume of data, which has significant spatial distribution to provide the equivalent PetrelTM is at the heart of the Living Model, complemented ® of an unsolved Rubik cube, which may be by GeoFrame®, ECLIPSE , Merak® , and InsideReality.TM subsequently migrated to generate the Blending these Schlumberger Information Solutions structural setting. technologies and potentially third-party products and services, the Living Model provides a 3D representation of the “2D” seismic was never called 2D during its reservoir with both static and dynamic modeling capabilities. time. This would be like minting a coin in Roman times and stamping it 55 B.C. In other It enables modeling for the masses, uniformity for decision words, in the days of 2D there was no making and models that can be updated easily. contemplation of the arrival of 3D. It should be remembered though that both “2D” and A combination of speed and application depth, the Living “3D” are 3D samplings of the subsurface, the Model is the ultimate workflow solution. difference is that “3D” is controlled sampling spatially while “2D” is not. www.sis.slb.com
The Rubik Cube analogy is valid again when we consider the need for migration. It is impossible to properly solve (migrate) the Rubik Cube if there is only one face (i.e., 2D data) available.We require the six faces of the
cube to be available to properly solve in and the Living Model are trademarks of S © 2004 Schlumberger Information Solutions. All rights reserved. Petrel, InsideReality, vector (3D) space (Figure 7-5). (Continued on Page 22...) 21 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 22
the above, particularly by selecting appropriate 2D lines from the 3D volume and using the two data sets as complimentary pairs in the interpretation. In the final analysis, 3D data has significantly improved the ability to image geological structure (reefs, faults, salt domes, anticlines, channels) and has made enormous contributions to new field discoveries over the last 30 years.
Figure 7-4. 2D seismic over the Banff-Aquitaine Rainbow discovery (Pan American Petroleum Corporation). Figure 7-5. Properly migrated data can provide a (...Continued from Page 21) resolution. This is a function of the statistical correct structural picture in 3D space. 2D seismic has largely become the azimuthal averaging, which is common in 3D undesirable process and most companies will data handling. 2D lines have a constant require 3D definition of a prospect before relation to anisotropy if they are straight and Note: Questions on this and subsequent articles committing to drill. However, 2D data has this can have a certain advantage in are invited. Please send any question by e-mail some advantages, cost being a significant one. interpretation. to the author at [email protected] selection A well designed/positioned 2D line can be of questions with answers will be published used to advantage and can generate better In general, however, 3D seismic, if carefully regularly. vertical resolution while compromising spatial acquired and processed, can be used for all of
FRESH EGGs NEEDED
22 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 23
Fall Field Seminars
Getting outdoors to enjoy the cool, crisp fall weather is easy with AAPG’s wide selection of available Field Seminars in September!!
Modern Deltas Leaders: Harry H. Roberts, Gregory Stone and Samuel Bentley, Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Date: September 5-9, 2005 Location: Begins in Baton Rouge and ends in New Orleans, Louisiana Tuition: $2,500 (increases to $2600 after 8/8/05), includes 5 nights lodging, bus and boat transportation, field lunches, and guidebook
Who Should Attend Geoscientists who need to understand the sedimentary architecture of deltas, internal characteristics of constituent sediment bodies, and sequence/seismic stratigraphic relationships with surrounding facies.
Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphic Response of Paralic Deposits to Changes in Accommodation: Predicting Reservoir Architecture, Book Cliffs, Utah Leaders: Keith W. Shanley, Consultant, Denver, CO; J. Michael Boyles, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY Date: September 8-14, 2005 Location: Begins and ends in Grand Junction, Colorado Tuition: $1,850 (increases to $1950 after 8/11/05), includes ground transportation, lunches, and guidebook
Who Should Attend Geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers working in exploration and production settings.
Fractures, Folds, and Faults in Thrusted Terrains: Sawtooth Range, Montana Leaders: Steven N. Boyer, Consultant, Tacoma, WA; William Hansen, Jireh Consulting Services, Great Falls, MT; Charles F. Kluth, Kluth & Associates, Littleton, CO; James Sears, University of Montana, Missoula Date: September 12-17, 2005 Location: Begins and ends in Great Falls, Montana Tuition: $2,500 (increases to $2600 after 8/15/05), includes lunches, transportation, guidebooks, admission to Glacier National Park, and some additional meals.
Who Should Attend Geologists, geophysicists, log analysts, engineers and exploration managers who want a thorough understanding of the geology and complexity of exploring in thrust belts.
Modern Clastic Depositional Environments Leader: Miles O. Hayes, Research Planning, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina Dates: September 14-20; September 29 - October 5, 2005 Location: Begins in Columbia and ends in Charleston, South Carolina Tuition: $2,200 (increases to $2300 four weeks prior to each start date), includes lunches, transfer to Charleston, South Carolina, lecture notes and SC Coastal Environments CD-ROM.
Who Should Attend Development and exploration geologists, engineers, log analysts, geophysicists, and exploration and development supervisors who want to acquaint themselves with a wide range of modern clastic environments. For further information, please contact the AAPG Education Department Phone: 918-560-2650; Fax: 918-560-2678; e-mail: [email protected] Or log on to www.aapg.org/education/index.cfm
23 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 24
STANLEY SLIPPER GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENT
BY GODFRIED WASSER AND DAVE RUSSUM, CHAIRPERSONS OF THE CSPG EDUCATION COMMITTEE under control by re-installing a wellhead. In THE STORY OF THE CAROLINE DISCOVERY: 1923, Stanley Slipper switched to consulting, Patricia Lee was born in Montreal, Quebec (both geology and engineering), moving to and obtained her B.Sc. Honours in Geology room 916 in the Lancaster building, later from McGill University in 1978. She came to becoming Chief Geologist for the Gas Calgary to work for Shell Canada at a time Company. Stan devised the first dead-weight when the industry was booming. In 1980 and pressure gauge (built by the Gas Company’s still a rookie geologist, Pat proposed that a shop), enabling the measurement of cross-functional posting between geology and differences of as little as one pound per geophysics would be good training for her as a square inch. He was the first to recognize and future explorer. Although this hadn’t been evoke the super-compressibility of gas during done in Shell Canada before they saw the a Turner Valley rate case in 1932. Harry benefits and agreed to Pat’s proposal for a Hunter, his successor at Canadian Western one-year transfer to geophysics. Pat was eager Natural gas Light Heat and Power, confirmed for a challenge and wanted an assignment that that Stan proved more gas had been included seismic processing, modeling and produced than could be accounted for. interpretation. Shell was active in the Brown Creek and Stolberg areas and it was decided PATRICIA J. LEE Slipper was not only the first President of our that her assignment was to extend the Swan Stanley Slipper Gold Medal Society; he fought off the Association of Hills play south to the Caroline area, an area Canadian Society of Petroleum Professional Engineers of Alberta’s attempts that had been long ignored. It was suggested Geologists 2005 to absorb geologists long before the term that she examine the possibility that modern “Petroleum Geologists” was even dreamed seismic might better define the loosely The Stanley Slipper Gold Medal is named for of. This pioneer and explorer in geology, constrained edge of the Swan Hills Formation Stanley E. Slipper (1890-1982), the first engineering, and natural gas technology of the Beaverhill Lake Group in the Caroline President of the Canadian Society of bequeathed a fund of knowledge, years ahead region. Pat had developed a series of synthetic Petroleum Geologists. It is the Society’s most of his time and was considered by many a seismic models by 1981 after studying the prestigious award. The award is presented virtual Leonardo da Vinci. My many sparse deep well control (less than one well annually to an individual who has made an associations with Stan, ending in a final per Township in the Caroline area) and the outstanding contribution to petroleum interview with him in 1981 (at age 92) nature of the producing analogue pools exploration in Canada and has been convinced me that he indeed deserved the around Hanlan 150 km to the north. The personally identified as having played a crucial honour (unbeknownst to him) of our highest model that best matched the character on the role in a major Canadian hydrocarbon award in the Canadian Society of Petroleum seismic data suggested that subtle but distinct discovery. Geologists. changes in seismic response should be present where the transitions from off-reef through The real significance of our Society having The award for 2004 is made to Patricia J. Lee porous margin and into tight back-bank occur. created an Award in Slipper’s honour, lies in for her involvement in the discovery of the However, she was to find out it was the belief his many geological and engineering Devonian Caroline Beaverhill Lake “A” pool at the time in Shell Canada that the achievement. Both past and future recipients in west-central Alberta in 1986. interpretation of porosity in carbonates on should reflect on Stan’s long fruitful career seismic was considered to be very unreliable. and what it means to them. A graduate in The first successful exploration in the In fact, more experienced geophysicists before 1911 from Queen’s, Slipper started off (as did Devonian Beaverhill Lake Group occurred in her had not interpreted porosity on seismic in many of his contemporaries) with the GSC 1957 in the Swan Hills area. Up until 1970, a the Caroline area and according to Shell on tough frontier field parties (e.g., Yukon family of predominantly oil-prone pools had geophysicists working the analogue areas to Alaska Boundary, 141W). Slipper’s two been delineated in the region northwest of the north, the seismic there did not exhibit assignments in Turner Valley, surface geology Edmonton including Virginia Hills,Judy Creek, porosity character either. Even though Pat had and well sitting Dingman No. 1, both with the Snipe Lake, Kaybob, Carson Creek, Ante technical explanations for these GSC, were followed by his taking over as Creek, Kaybob South, and Goose River. The inconsistencies, the play was given a very low “Petroleum Engineer” in 1917 for the next decade also proved productive with probability of success and no priority. Department of Interior, which had its offices prolific gas fields tapped at Rosevear, Erith, in the Lancaster Building. He helped in the Hanlan, and Brown Creek (Blackstone). The early 1980s were a difficult time for the first assessment of oil and gas reserves. Where the porous margins went to the industry. The introduction of the National south was a mystery. The edge separating Energy Program in 1980 and its attendant He delved into the primitive Federal statutes bank to the west from basin to the east restrictions on industry cash flow had teamed of 1914 and rewrote regulations culminating seemed to trend beneath the Brazeau Thrust up with a recession to constrain exploratory in his 1922 “Manual for Operators under Oil at the leading edge of the Foothills and when expenditures. With more conventional play and Gas Regulations”, a hands-on practical it emerged northwest of Calgary, widely types having the upper hand, funding for such guide for field crews, the forerunner to the spaced deep tests failed to nail down the a new concept proved difficult. In addition, Conservation Board. Stan would rent out his location of the elusive but prospective capturing a substantial portion of a pool in the mud pump ($10/day) which he took along to carbonate bank edge. The game was afoot, Caroline region was anticipated to be difficult help kill gas wells. Stan also successfully the prize was potentially company-making given the presence of several shallower brought a wild gas well at Pelican Rapids and the playing ground was huge. producing trends in the Cardium and Rundle 24 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:04 AM Page 25
zones that had the effect of holding the deeper margin averaging 9% porosity! Kevin Polan, the In a portion of the Western Canadian rights. Fortunately the Province had begun the geologist who had been transferred onto the Sedimentary Basin written off for big pools by introduction of deep rights reversion in the project and was at the wellsite, made the many,Caroline was a tremendous discovery.At late 1970s and this had the effect of returning historic phone call to the office.The well was a raw gas-in-place of just over 2 Tcf, Caroline to the market significant tracts of deep rights later found to flow at a rate of 650 e3m3/d (23 was the first major discovery of its class size over the trend by the early 1980s. mmcf/d) at 8000 kPa. Finally after five long since Kaybob South in 1961. Caroline’s wells years, Pat’s model was proven to be true.The penetrate between 20 and 40 metres of pay Convincing management proved to be a major well was hailed as a major gas discovery! with 8-11% porosity having 22-275 md of challenge but Pat was persistent. Using permeability. Hydrocarbon saturation ranges primarily older trade seismic, she mapped out Shell was quick to capitalize on its confidential from 90-92% and recovery efficiency is a potential Swan Hills porous bank edge only knowledge. It chose to rely on logs only and at expected to be 90%. Its 16 producing wells a kilometre or two wide but approximately 25 first deferred the production testing of the flow through a gathering system of 230 km kilometres long. With some conservative discovery well to keep the success under spread over 50 sections of pool acreage. The reservoir parameters, the prospect could hold wraps. Shell moved the rig farther north to a field experienced a plant capacity constrained in the order of a trillion cubic feet of raw gas. location between the competitor wells and flat life of 10 years following the Although considered to be very technically successfully drilled another winner two commencement of production in 1993 with risky, the size of the prize was large enough months later with twice the pay zone as the raw gas rates totaling approximately 10,500 that Shell began to shoot new state-of-the-art first. It too was quietly shut down without e3m3/d (375 mmcf/d).The field proved to be a seismic lines across the fairway. In late 1982, a production testing. In a masterfully structured giant producing 100 mmcf/d sales gas, 28,400 small team was formed to pursue this series of farm-ins, lease sales, and additional bbl/d of natural gas liquids, 18,300 bbl/d of opportunity under the wing of Felix Frey, drilling, Shell was able to capture condensate, and 4000 tons/d of sulphur. Even Manager of Foothills Exploration. Joining Pat approximately 50% of the productive acreage with today’s raw gas rates at about 25 to 30% was Gary Billings who was assigned to look over the pool (later increased to 71.7% of the below peak production, current revenues from after the new seismic.The narrowing down of working interest through unitization and production are in excess of $1 million per day. the target location was aided by the activities purchase). By the time the one-year of a number of competitors in the play. In confidentiality period on the discovery Caroline’s 64.7 billion cubic metres (2.3 TCF) 1972, Atlanta had drilled a non-porous on- expired in early 1987, the game was largely of raw gas in place was amazingly twice the bank test at 8-1-35-6W5 while in 1973, over as far as the main pool was concerned. size of the estimate from Pat’s original Quasar had drilled an off-bank test at 10-34- Many exciting challenges remained including interpretation. On a molecular basis the EUB 35-5W5 about six miles to the northeast. In the construction of a new sour gas handling reports the gas stream is 36% methane, 33% 1982, just as the play was unfolding, Dome facility in ranching and agricultural country, not hydrogen sulphide, 15% liquefied petroleum + drilled a test in-between the control wells at to mention the long-term operation of the gas, and 8% condensate (C5 ). Its reserves 11-17-35-5W5. Pat predicted the Dome well field’s infrastructure. Continued on page 33... would just miss and encounter tight on-bank. She was right! The edge was thus constrained by well control to lie between the Dome and Quasar penetrations and their along-strike continuations, fitting Pat’s original interpretation.Additional seismic was shot and through a coordinated and strategic land acquisition program a land base was assembled. In 1984, Canterra probed for the margin at 6-14-35-5W5. Again, Pat’s model predicted that it would just miss by coming up off-bank. And indeed she was right. Although these wells did not confirm the porous bank edge existed, Shell was increasingly intrigued that this rookie’s prospect could be real. All that was needed now for Shell was a successful well to validate Pat’s concept.
In late 1985 the time had come to take this next step. Logic would have dictated a location close to the competitor wells but a pending land expiry forced a test to be drilled about six miles to the south-southeast at 7-18-34-4W5 on a tract of 100% Shell acreage. This critical test at a location predicted by Pat’s model to hit porosity, spudded on December 1, 1985. The rig was released on February 13, 1986, interestingly thirty-nine years to the day from when Leduc had been brought on.With much anticipation, as the bit penetrated the target zone at 3,653 metres, excitement erupted as it found 20.3 metres of gas-bearing porous reef Patricia Lee receiving the Stanley Slipper Gold Medal Award from President, Jeff Packard. 25 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 26
THE CANADIAN UNIQUE WELL IDENTIFIER BY BEN MCKENZIE
Petroconsultants in use outside the United States and Canada.
DTI – A well name defined by the Department of Trade and Industry of the UK which consists of a concatenation of codes for country, quadrant, block, block suffix, platform design, drilling sequence number, and well suffix.
In western Canada and the northern and offshore frontier areas (Figure 1), the UWI is defined in three main survey systems – the Dominion Land Survey (DLS), the National Topographic Series (NTS), and the Federal Permit System (FPS). The general format consists of 16 characters as shown in Figure 2.
The leading character identifies which survey system is being used, which in turn defines the remaining characters.There are four codes for Figure 1. Main UWI systems in use in Canada. the systems used: “1” for the Dominion Land Well identification systems serve two main In Canada, this data is captured in the unique Survey used in the western provinces; “2” for purposes. One is to be able to uniquely label well identifier (UWI). The UWI is used not the National Topographic System used in a particular wellbore event and the other is only to geographically locate a particular hole British Columbia outside of the Peace River to be able to geographically locate that event in the ground, but also to help identify what Block; “3” for the Federal Permit System used and its derived data. These two goals are type of well it is and its completion history. It for the offshore areas and areas north of 60º; different in that the actual surveyed location was initially developed as a means of standard and “4” for geodetic coordinates which were of a well has much more accuracy inherent to well identification by the Geoscience data intended for use in Ontario, Quebec, and the it than is available in typical well identification Committee of the Canadian Petroleum Maritime provinces. Within the individual systems. However, a standard system will Association (now the Canadian Association of sections of the UWI, leading zeros are used as decrease the likelihood of geographical Petroleum Producers) in the late 1970s. required so that the entire UWI remains at 16 errors occurring when using that data – and characters. The names and abbreviations used is much easier to use then trying to In addition to the Canadian UWI, there are for the different portions of the UWIs vary remember x,y coordinates to six decimal numerous other public and proprietary somewhat,depending on the individual practice places. Typically, a well identifier is linked to systems in use worldwide. Some of the more of any given company or government agency. the local survey system. This works fine prominent well identification systems include: where a company or organization is The DLS system was initially established to regionally focused but is less effective for the API – A well identification number aid development of the prairie provinces larger companies with operations spanning assigned by the appropriate regulatory during the early pioneering days and is also several diverse jurisdictions. body as prescribed by the American known as the Township-Range system. It Petroleum Institute D-9 Committee for covers Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and With over 500,000 wells drilled to date in identifying wells in the United States. The a portion of British Columbia known as the Canada (and millions worldwide) by the oil code includes digits to define the state (2) Peace River Block. Figure 3 illustrates the and gas industry, it is vitally important to be + county (3) + well (5) + wellbore (2) + composition of a UWI in the DLS system.The able to identify each individual well specifically. well completions (2). DLS begins by identifying the base meridian This is required for geologic mapping, WWN – A 12-digit, worldwide well (longitude) line, then the township and range reservoir engineering, royalty calculations, etc. numbering system presently maintained by (Continued on Page 28...)
Figure 2. UWI format. 26 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 27
“Some people let others YOU DECIDE
EAGE MADRID decide for them. AAPG CALGARY JUNE 2005 For me, choosing an E&P solution was too important.”
Dave Thomas VP of Exploration, Concho Equity Holdings Corp.
“I decided for myself and chose GeoGraphix. It's a decision that helped us improve our process and significantly cut project time. With GeoGraphix, geoscientists, engineers and land staff work multiple projects on the same system.
But, don't just take my word for it.”
T Test it. TEST DRIVE www.geographix.com
Geophysics Geology Engineering July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 28
SS LE LSD SEC TWP RGE WMER PES 12345678910111213141516
Figure 3. Composition of a unique well identifier in the DLS system.
(...Continued from Page 27) where the townships are not as precise in slashes for better readability as (for and on down through the section, legal size or shape as would be preferred. example): 100/01-01-001-01W1/00.The UWI subdivision (LSD), and quadrant. The first identifies the actual location of the bottom of meridian, identified as W1 or “west of the For the smaller divisions within a township, the hole, which may be different from the first” occurs at 97º27'28.4" longitude. The the complicating issue of the earth’s surface location if the well is deviated remaining meridians occur at every fourth curvature is not as serious. As indicated (directionally or horizontally drilled). The degree of longitude – W2 at 102º, W3 at above, a township (nominally) consists of 36 location exception code indicates what type 106º, W4 at 110º, W5 at 114º, and W6 at square miles (six miles by six miles). Each and which distinct hole the well is.The event 118º. East of the base line, the meridians are square mile is called a section and is divided sequence is related to the drilling and/or designated as E1, etc. and are also 4º apart. into 16 LSDs (4x4 grid) as shown in Figure 3. completion history of a particular wellbore. Within each meridian, the basic map unit is The LSD is further divided into quadrants. the township, which consists of a quadrangle Quadrants are designated by letters while While the majority of wells drilled are the six miles by six miles (the system was set up LSDs, sections, townships, ranges, and result of petroleum exploration and long before the country converted to meridians are numeric.The general format of development, there are several other types of metric). Each township is uniquely identified a UWI in the DLS system consists of 16 boreholes which require a UWI. These by the meridian/township/range combination. characters as shown in figure 3 and are include wells drilled to evaluate or produce defined as: oil sands, coal resources, and fresh water. Oil As an aside, this odd choice for the W1 base SS = survey system; e.g., DLS = 1 sands evaluation wells use two-letter line was apparently chosen as it was close to LE = location exception; used to indicate combinations for the location exception the Red River settlement near Winnipeg,which more than one drill hole in the LSD and codes.The values can range from AA to HZ, – it seemed at the time – would be the starting usually indicates the sequence in which the excluding the use of I and O (e.g., BI or HO) point of western expansion. Interestingly, holes were drilled; the first well is 00, the and are not necessarily assigned in the according to Williams (2003), the initiation of next well is 02 and then sequentially chronological order of drilling. Coal drill the DLS surveying without consultation with numbered up to 19; the location exception holes are identified by the location exception the Metis of the region was at least partly code may also consist of a letter and codes of 1A through 9Z. Likewise, they do responsible for the Riel Rebellion. number combination used to identify a not use I or O and the codes are not particular type of resource necessarily in the chronological order of Townships (Twps) are numbered from south LSD = legal subdivision; numbered 01 to 16 drilling.The exclusion of the letters I and O is to north, with Twp. 1 at the U.S./ Canada SEC = section; numbered 01 to 36 to avoid confusion with the numbers 1 and 0. border (49º latitude) and Twp. 126 at the TWP = township; numbered 001 to 126 northern border of the prairie provinces (60º RGE = range; numbered 01 to 34 Fresh water sources are identified by the first latitude). Ranges (Rges) are numbered from W or E = “west of” or “east of” character in the location exception code by “F” east to west on the west side of the base line MER = meridian; numbered 1 to 6 for wells, “L” for lakes, and “R” for rivers. The (W1) and west to east on the east side.West P = unused character in the DLS system second character (0 through 9, excluding 1) of the first meridian, there are a maximum of but required in others indicates the chronological order in which the 34 ranges at the broadest distance along the ES = event sequence; the chronological freshwater source locations were activated. 49th parallel. For the standard meridians, the sequence of a significant drilling or maximum is 30 ranges. Because the DLS completion operation in a drill hole that For situations where the drilling spacing unit system attempts to map a square parcel on a yields a separate and unique set of data; (typically for heavy oil wells) is less than one round surface (the earth), there has to be numbered 0, 2 to 9 (at the current time, the LSD in size, the first character of the location some correction to account for the system can only handle ten events) exception code identifies the quadrant (i.e., converging longitude lines.This occurs every A, B, C, or D) and the second character (0 four townships, starting at the boundary Typically the first, second and fifteenth through 9, excluding 1) indicates the between townships 2 and 3, resulting in characters are not shown when writing out chronological order in which the wells were progressively fewer ranges as the latitude the DLS UWI. drilled in the quadrant. Another situation increases. Also, as to be expected with the arises where the well is drilled in a road fairly basic early surveying practices and large The various components of the UWI in the allowance. Road allowances are essentially a distances covered, there are some areas DLS system are written with dashes and provincial right-of-way that runs along the 28 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 29
section edges. The location exception code Section 10 Section 11 for a well drilled in a road allowance uses either “S” or “W” (for south or west, respectively), combined with a sequential number of 0 through 9, excluding 1.
Potentially, a single well could penetrate more than one type of resource. For example, a well drilled for oil or gas could have the UWI of 100/10-20-030-15W4/00 (for the first well in the LSD).The same location, if it encountered oil sands would be 1AA/10-20-030-15W4/00 (for the first oil sands occurrence in the LSD). And, for the first coal occurrence in the LSD, A) Multiple completions in B) Multiple depths in a C) Multiple legs in a wellbore;A-B was the original a wellbore; the first wellbore;A-B was the depth and is the “0” event,A-C is the first new leg it would be 11A/10-20-030-15W4/00. completion is the “0” original depth and is the and is the “2” event;A-D is the second new leg event, the next completion “0” event, B-C is the and is the “3” event,A-E is the third new leg but At the other end of the UWI, the event is the “2” event depth reached after ends in a different LSD than the original wellbore; sequence code indicates a significant event in additional drilling and is A-E will be the “4” event, but will have section 11 the “2” event as its (bottom-hole) location rather than section 10 the life of the well.This may be a subsequent completion in a different zone (Figure 4a), a Figure 4. Examples of well events in the UWI. deepening (Figure 4b), or a re-entry in vertical wells or deviated or horizontal legs originating from an existing well. As seen in Figure 4c, an event (A-E) may end in a different LSD than the original wellbore. In that situation, the event code would show that there was more than one significant event in the wellbore and the location code would reflect the bottom-hole co-ordinates.
Although the UWI is intended to be a standard referencing system, there are some differences between the provinces. For example, the Saskatchewan Industry and Resources Department defines the location exception code by first dividing the LSD into five parts instead of four: • a 100.6 m square centered on the centre of the LSD; • the SE; • the SW; • the NW; and • the NE
The first licence issued within the central square of the LSD will have an LE of 01, the second licence issued will have 02, etc., up to the ninth licence (09).The tenth licence will have an LE of 0A, the eleventh will be 0B, etc.The first licence issued within the SE 1/4 of the LSD will have an LE of 11; the second licence issued will have a 12, up to the ninth licence at 19.The tenth licence will have an LE of 1A, etc.The first licence issued within the SW 1/4 of the LSD will have an LE of 21; the second licence issued will have a 22, up to the ninth licence at 29.The tenth licence will have an LE of 2A, etc. And so on. The Saskatchewan location/ naming system can be fairly convoluted, as can be the well control (see Figure 5), and the assignment of the UWI is handled by the Petroleum Development Branch.
(Continued on Page 30...) Figure 5. Examples of vertical and deviated well control (data from AccuMap). 29 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 30
SS LE QTR UNIT BLK PQ LQ I6 P ES 12345678910111213141516
Figure 6. Composition of an unique well identifier in the NTS system.
(...Continued from Page 29) southeast. The dimensions of each tertiary It is written as: The National Topographic System (NTS) quadrangle are 15 minutes of latitude by 30 3EE/U-SS DT-MT DLG-MG/Q,where takes a completely different approach from minutes of longitude. 3 = the survey system (i.e., FPS, as opposed that of the DLS system in that it is based on to 1 for DLS and 2 for NTS) latitude and longitude.Although very little of The next size category divides each LE = Location Exception Canada has been surveyed on the ground, Sixteenth into 12 Blocks (Blk), lettered A to U = Unit there is still a necessity to refer to areas of L. Each Block is composed of 100 numbered SS = Section the country and to designate maps at various Units (Unit), which, in turn, are composed of DT = Degrees Latitude scales in a systematic way. To accommodate four lettered Quarter-units (Qtr). Although MT = Minutes Latitude these needs, the National Topographic the size varies somewhat with latitude, the DLG = Degrees Longitude System was designed. In the Canadian Blocks are roughly 2/3 the size of a MG = Minutes Longitude petroleum industry, the NTS is used township, four Units are about the size of a Q = Event Sequence throughout most of British Columbia as the DLS section, and one Quarter-unit is about basis for the UWI. The general format of a the size of a LSD. (Figure 7). The basic unit in the FPS system is the grid UWI in the NTS system consists of 16 area. Grid areas are bounded east and west characters as shown in Figure 6: Unlike the DLS codes in Alberta and by every 15’ of longitude (e.g., 110º00’, Saskatchewan, the NTS location exception 110º15’, 110º30’, etc.) and north and south by The fundamental unit of the NTS is the and event sequence codes as currently used every 10’ of latitude (e.g., 60º00’, 60º10’, primary quadrangle (PQ), which consists of 4° in B.C. are simple numbers indicating the 60º20’, etc.). The location of the grid area is of latitude by 8° of longitude over all of chronological order of the well or event. referenced to the latitude and longitude of its Canada (except in the high arctic north of Like Alberta, B.C. doesn’t use the number northeast corner (see Figure 7). Latitude 80°, where the east-west dimension is “1” in those two codes. 16° of longitude).The primary quadrangles are At the maximum, the grid area is divided numbered and arranged in east-to-west rows, The third main well identification system is into a 10 by 10 matrix of 100 sections (not with the SE corner of quadrangle 0 (zero) at the Federal Permit System and it is used for to be confused with the DLS section of a the intersection of 40° North Latitude and 48° wells north of 60º latitude and in the square mile). Sections begin numbering with West Longitude, in the Atlantic Ocean, south offshore areas. The general format of a section 1 in the southeast corner and of Newfoundland. The numbering scheme for UWI in the Federal Permit System consists proceed north to section 10 in the the primary quadrangle is decimal, with of 16 characters as shown in figure 2. northeast corner. Section 11 drops back to quadrangle 10 immediately west of quadrangle 0, quadrangle 20 immediately west of quadrangle 10, quadrangle 30 immediately west of quadrangle 20 and so on. Quadrangle 11 lies immediately north of quadrangle 10, quadrangle 12 immediately north of quadrangle 11, etc.
NTS primary quadrangles are subdivided into 16 secondary quadrangles (Lettered Quadrangles – LQ), designated A to P in a zig-zag pattern starting with "A” as the Lettered Quadrangle in the southeast corner of the Primary Quadrangle (Figure 6). Each of the secondary quadrangles in turn is subdivided into sixteen tertiary quadrangles (called Sixteenths), which are numbered from 1 to 16, in a zig-zag arrangement, also starting with 1 in the Figure 7. Relative sizes in the DLS, NTS, and FPS sysstems (data from AccuMap). 30 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 31
(similar to the LSDs in a DLS section). The units are identified by the letters “A” through “P”, starting in the southeast corner and zig-zagging up to the northeast corner (Figure 7). Like the NTS location exception and event sequence codes in B.C., the FPS completes the UWI by using simple numbers to indicate the chronological order of the well or event.
While the DLS, NTS, and FPS numbering systems cover the bulk of well identifiers used in the petroleum industry in Canada, there are two others to mention. One is the system intended for use in the eastern provinces, where there are a small number of oil and gas wells and the other is the DLS system as used in the adjoining western U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.
The Geodetic survey system identifies the center point of a rectangular area by giving the latitude in columns 4-8 and the longitude in columns 9-14, with an implied decimal between columns 5 and 6 and between columms 11 and 12 (see figure 2). Geodetic coordinates have not attained popular support and the eastern provinces instead Figure 8. Base Lines and Meridians of the western U.S. states (after exhibit 6, Premier Data Services). use a variety of local systems.
Ontario identifies the well by a combination of county / township / lot / concession. Since the southern border and again numbers latitude – north of the prairie provinces – Ontario wasn’t part of the homesteading north and so on to a maximum of ten the grid area has 80 sections.At 68º, the grid era, their survey system is not quite as columns. Section 100 is identified as “00”. area decreases further from 80 sections to simple to interpret as that used in the west. Because the longitude lines converge 60 sections.At 70º, the bounding longitudes New Brunswick uses a system similar to the northwards, the sections become narrower change from every 15’ to 30’ and the grid FPS but oriented to that province.There the and narrower until the number of sections area starts back with 100 sections. well identifier is composed of the company in a grid area is reduced. For example, while name, a topographic location name, and the a grid area off the east coast of Nova Scotia Next in size are units. Every section is unit / section / grid number (a four-digit at latitude 45ºcontains 100 sections, at 60º divided into a 4x4 matrix yielding 16 units (Continued on Page 33...)
Figure 9. Composition of PLSS UWI. 31 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 32
ROCK SHOP
Independent Wellsite Geologist
n 28 yrs. oil & gas experience n 19 yrs. fi eld experience RESERVOIR GEOPHYSICS EXPERTISE n Horizontal / Directional / Foothills / Plains AVO, LMR, FACIES-CLASSIFICATION Y. Marc Tremblay, B.Sc. (Geol.), P. Geol. 403-242-6080 Check availability at: www.wellsitegeologist.com
403.263.0449 www.ecqc.com
Heavy Oil Specialists • SAGD/Horizontal • Coring Programs Wellsite Geological Supervision since 1980
Conventional Wells C. Alex Francoeur, P.Geol. • Horizontal/Directional President • Gas Detection Tel/Fax: (403) 281-6694 Cell: (403) 861-6753 Coal Bed Methane Email: [email protected]
PETROLEUM EXPLORATION IN FOLD & THRUST BELTS GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES By PETER B. JONES Sept. 20-22, 2005 Geoscience Professional Development Centre Peter Milbradt, BSc (Geol.) At U. of C. Agent / MLS Realtor U. OF C. STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY FIELD TRIP 403-861-0141 Sept. 28-29 also with PETER JONES Email: [email protected] Call (403) 264-0173 or [email protected] www.realestateprofessionalsinc.com July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 33
(...Continued from Page 31) from the origin (Figure 9 ).The sections in the library.com/well_locations.html. Accessed number). Quebec provides some location PLS system begin in the northeast corner and April 20, 2005. information in their well identifier as they zig-zag down to the southeast corner. Each break the province into regions (A-F), which section is subdivided into quarters down as far Petrotechnical Open Software Corp. (2000). gives a general location. More information as needed. For example, a proper legal Ref_naming_system. http://www.posc.org/ on well identification in the individual description of the 40-acre square tract of land Epicentre.2_2/DataModel/LogicalDictionary/S eastern provinces can be found at: highlighted in Figure 9 would be described as: tandardValues/ref_naming_system.html. • NW 1/4, NE 1/4, Sec. 1, T. 2 N, R. 2 E, 3rd accessed April 3, 2005 New Brunswick Principal Meridian http://www1.gnb.ca/0078/hydrocarbons/ Premier Data Services. 2005. Introduction to Petroleum_Data-e.asp and http://www.gnb.ca In other words, the property is located in the Land Information, White Paper, v7.2. /0062/regs/86-190.htm northwest quadrant of the northeast http://www.premierdata.com/literature/Intro% Newfoundland quadrant of Section 1 which is within the 20Land%20Information.pdf.Accessed April 18, http://www.cnopb.nfnet.com/publicat/other/ township located two townships north of the 2005. 105 p. sch_well/introduc.pdf baseline and two ranges east of the third Rasband, James, Salzman, James, Squillace, Nova Scotia principal meridian. Because a single section is Mark. Natural Resources Law and Policy – http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/meb/is/is10.htm 640 acres (one square mile), a quarter Section III-C. Federal Disposition of the Ontario section is 160 acres (the typical homestead Nation’s Land and Resources, http://natural http://www.ogsrlibrary.com grant), and a quarter, quarter section, as in resources.byu.edu/chap2.html. Accessed Quebec the case of the hypothetical property April 18, 2005. http://sigpeg.mrnfp.gouv.qc.ca/gpg/classes/ description above, is 40 acres. igpg?langue=A Saskatchewan Petroleum Development As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Branch. 2003. Instruction Directive I.D. EM-46 In the U.S., all of the states except the original the ability to locate wells precisely is vitally Well Licence Application. Saskatchewan 13 colonies (and their subsequent spin-offs), important in the petroleum industry, as they Industry and Resources. http://www.ir.gov. Texas, and Hawaii, use the U.S. Public Land are the data points used for all subsurface sk.ca/adx/asp/adxGetMedia.asp?DocID=3685, Survey System (PLSS).The PLSS became official interpretation. The UWI aids this process by 3680,3384,2936,Documents&MediaID=5102& government policy shortly after the tying the well to a standardized survey system Filename=Insturction+Directive+ID+EM- Revolutionary War, with the passing of the in a way that is relatively easy to visualize. 46+Well+Licence+Application.pdf. Accessed Land Ordinance of 1785.This ordinance grew April 4, 2005. out of a political movement led by Thomas REFERENCES Jefferson (hence, the alternate name - Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. 2004. Williams, Gordon. Prairie Land Systems. Jeffersonian Survey System) and John Adams Guide 59:Well Drilling and Completion Data 2003. powerpoint presentation to the Alberta that held that an essential part of a democracy Filing Requirements.AEUB. Calgary,Ab. 38 p. Families History Society. www.afhs.ab.ca/aids/ was the right to own property. Under this talks/2003_oct_williams.ppt, accessed April 3, “rectangular survey system”, land is subdivided Offshore Petroleum Board. 2001. Information 2005. 31 p. after a baseline, running east and west, and a on Well Data, Geological Data, Geophysical meridian, running north and south, is first Data, and Land Rights. Canada-Nova Scotia Williams, Gordon. The Dominion Lands established (Figure 8). Offshore Petroleum Board.Appendix I. Survey System (DLS System). presentation to the Alberta Families History Society. Once the baseline and meridian are defined, Oil, Gas & Salt Resources Library. 2005. http://www.afhs.ab.ca/aids/talks/2003_oct_wil townships of 36 square miles are numbered Maps/Data, Well locations. http://www.ogsr liams.html, accessed April 3, 2005.
STANLEY SLIPPER GOLD MEDAL ...Continued From Page 25
included 580 billion cubic feet of sales gas, 225 Pat would be the first to state that Drilling, Testing, and Production sides who million barrels of hydrocarbon liquids, and 20 exploration is a team game and this made vital contributions. million tons of sulphur.With all the natural gas testimonial would be incomplete without liquids and condensate some have mention of some of the others who worked Pat went on to additional successes in the characterized Caroline as a giant oil pool. with her to make this discovery happen. A Foothills at Waterton and in northeastern Caroline’s significance to the Province of number of individuals in management were British Columbia. She has held various Alberta was staggering. At the time of instrumental in the discovery including Felix positions in Exploration and Production discovery, it contained 10% of the Province’s Frey, Ray Woods, Lorne Kingwell, Roger and is currently Chief Geologist at Shell remaining natural gas liquid reserves, 15% of Brundrit, Glen Robertson, and Paul Merki. Canada. its remaining condensate reserves, and 25% of Amongst them, Felix’s active promotion and its remaining sulphur reserves. careful planning were crucial. Pat’s geological Pat’s technical leadership, creativity, and colleagues included Kevin Polan, Mike tenacity, which lead to the discovery of the To put it in a financial context, the Caroline Marshall, and Pat George. Geophysically Caroline Beaverhill Lake “A” Pool, make complex represented a billion-dollar asset and involved were Gary Billings, Wayne Glover, her a worthy recipient of the Stanley it has generated several billions of dollars in Murry Cathcart, Catriona Hickley, and Slipper Gold Medal. revenues for the project owners. Not bad for Lorne Smith. There were also many people the manifestation of Pat’s model! on the Land, Community Consultation, 33 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:05 AM Page 34
R.J.W. DOUGLAS MEDAL RECIPIENT
Fluently bilingual and a devoted educator, associate editor of the Bulletin of Canadian Pierre-André co-authored the reef chapter Petroleum Geology, representing the of the famous Facies Models textbook, Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists supervised a cadre of excellent graduate and Society for Sedimentary Geology students who have themselves gone on to (SEPM) on campus, and advising the Quebec prominence, and delivered decades of field Institut National de la Recherche trips and classes on advanced sedimentology Scientifique-Géoressources and the and stratigraphy. He has presented Geological Survey of Canada. Pierre-André numerous short courses to oil company was the 2002 recipient of the Côme personnel in Morocco and Algeria.His highly Carbonneau Prize from the Ordre des popular introductory earth history course Géologues Québec for his outstanding has been taken by thousands of Université service. Laval undergraduate students. Not only has he been active in distance learning via With the award of the R.J.W.Douglas Medal television, his French language website on of the Canadian Society of Petroleum the fundamentals of geology is consulted Geologists, we salute Pierre-André Bourque heavily by francophones world-wide. Along for his superlative achievements in with his teaching and research elucidating the regional geology of Quebec achievements, he has been an active and his international stature in carbonate geological citizen, serving on many sedimentology. Pierre-André Bourque – committees internal and external, including Citation with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Pierre-André Bourque was born in International Geological Correlation Shawinigan, Quebec, and was raised in Sorel. Program of the International Union of He received his B.Sc., M. Sc., and, in 1973, his Geological Sciences, reviewing innumerable Ph.D., all from Université de Montréal.After manuscripts and grant proposals, serving as a brief stint as a geologist with the provincial Ministére de Richesses Naturelles, he joined the faculty of Université Laval, Quebec, in 1974. Pierre-André recently retired and is now professor emeritus.
Pierre-André has been a force in Quebec geology for over three decades. During this time, he has mastered the middle Paleozoic stratigraphy of the Gaspé Peninsula, producing a stream of detailed Government of Quebec geological maps and reports about this critical and complex area of Appalachian Canada. These have been augmented by an enviable array of high quality refereed journal articles focused on the Silurian: its sedimentology, paleoecology, reefs, diagenesis, and tectonic evolution – the most recent contributions being collected in the June 2001 special issue of the Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology. His vast experience in the region has made him the requisite expert to consult for background on its hydrocarbon potential. Pierre-André’s interest in the Silurian reefs of the Port-Daniel sector led him to pursue in more detail that most enigmatic of Paleozoic reef types, stromatactis-bearing mud-mounds. With pre-eminent studies on examples from western Europe and North Africa, he has established himself as a premier international authority on these kinds of reefs. Benoit Beauchamp (L) receiving RJW Douglas Medal on behalf of Pierre-André Bourque 34 July/Aug 6/11/05 11:06 AM Page 35
GEO3#/54 DOES MORE WITH THE DATA 3O THE DATA DOES MORE FOR YOU FLEXIBILITY
NLV:*6<;PZ[OLVPSHUKNHZPUMVYTH[PVUZ`Z[LT VERSATILITY [OH[NP]LZ`V\TVYL4VYL]HS\LHKKLKKH[HZL[Z 4VYLKH[HM\UJ[PVUHSP[`4VYLJOVPJLZPUKH[H PUW\[4VYL^H`Z[V]PL^HUKHWWS`KH[H (UKTVYL^H`Z[VZ\WWVY[IL[[LY FUNCTIONALITY I\ZPULZZKLJPZPVUZ¶MYVT[OL ^LSSOLHK[VOLHKVMMPJL !!
%ASY TO USE 7INDOWS BASED GEO3#/54 ^VYRZ^P[OW\ISPJHUKWYVWYPL[HY`KH[H0[KLSP]LYZH IYV^ZLYHUKJVTWYLOLUZP]LHUHS`[PJHS[VVSPUVUL Z`Z[LT>P[OWV^LYM\SZLHYJOPUNTHWWPUNYLWVY[PUN NYHWOPUNHUHS`ZPZHUKWYVWYPL[HY`PUMVYTH[PVU THUHNLTLU[M\UJ[PVUZ(UKVMJV\YZLNLV:*6<; \ZdH8DJI PZJVU[PU\V\ZS`\WKH[LKHUKIHJRLKI`V\[Z[HUKPUN J\Z[VTLYJLU[LYLKZ\WWVY[
*HSS\ZVY]PZP[V\Y^LIZP[L(UKMPUKV\[TVYLHIV\[ NLV:*6<;¶[OL]LYZH[PSLPUMVYTH[PVUZ`Z[LT[OH[ SL[Z`V\KVTVYL July/Aug 6/11/05 11:06 AM Page 36
Maximum reservoir performance
Want to make the most of your valuable oil and gas reserves?
Roxar’s integrated technology solutions and services help companies of all sizes realize the full economic potential of their oil and gas resources.
• Innovative modeling and simulation software • Downhole monitoring and control systems • Reservoir production multiphase metering • Reservoir and production consultancy Roxar’s leading-edge technology solutions from reservoir interpretation through to production & process meet the changing needs of users in managing the entire reservoir lifecycle.
www.roxar.com
INTERPRETATION MODELING SIMULATION WELL & COMPLETION PRODUCTION & PROCESS