March 13, 2021 Petro Ninja - Enlighten Geoscience WotW: The Deep Basin Era

This is the sixth post in a Well of the Week series detailing how Resource Plays (basin-wide plays with hydrocarbons are the continuous phase) have often driven Canadian oil and gas industry throughout its history. Links to the previous posts are provided at the bottom of the post.

Resource Play: Upper Mannville Deep Basin Gas Type Well Well UWI: 11/10-01-070-11W6/00 Drilling/Completion Technology: Rotary/Hydraulically Fractured

As outlined in previous posts, our industry exploited Resource Plays without fully realizing the nature of the play type they were exploiting. That was not the case with the Upper Mannville (also referred to as the Spirit River, Notikewin, Falher and Wilrich).

The Upper Mannville in West Central Alberta anomalously has gas downdip from water with no apparent trap in between. The geologists at Canadian Hunter, the company which discovered the play, fully realized the nature and extent of this massive gas accumulation and coined the term "Deep Basin" (sometimes referred to as Basin Centered Gas). And in the process of defining the Deep Basin concept, they pioneered many scientific advances. As detailed in the AAPG Memoir on the play, new techniques in hydrodynamics, petrology, petrophysics and sedimentology were developed to come to grips with this resource and understand the trap.

The exploitation of the Deep Basin is well into it's fifth decade and remains an important part of Canada's gas supply.

As a final note, I have always found it interesting that the type well used to outline outline the stratigraphy in a continuous gas accumulation had a wet DST. Possibly mischievous. Maybe an oversight. Or a clue left for the next generation of geologists to follow up on?

Reference

Elmworth: Case Study of a Deep Basin Gas Field, Masters, J. A. ed. AAPG Memoir (1984) 38: 316 pp.

Previous Posts February 21, 2021 Petro Ninja - Enlighten Geoscience WotW: 100/04-16-048-08W5/00 https://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/well-of-the-week

February 6, 2021 Petro Ninja - Enlighten Geoscience WotW: Another Oil Resource Play: https://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/february-6-2021-petro-ninja-enlighten-geoscience-wotw-another-oil-resource-play January 16, 2021 WotW - Historical Drivers of the WCSB Industry: Introduction: https://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/historical-drivers-of-the-wcsb-industry-introduction January 23, 2021 WotW - First Gas Well in Western Canada: https://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/january-23-2021-wotw-first-gas-well-in-western-canada January 29, 2021 WotW - First Oil Well in Western Canada: https://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/january-29-2021-wotw-first-oil-well-in-western-canadahttps://www.enlightengeoscience.com/single-post/january-29-2021-wotw-first-oil-well-in-western-canada