Chapter 13 Table Oil Production from the Wabamun Group
View Table 13.35a as an image.
Oil production from the Wabamun Group is minor compared to other Devonian producing zones. Production is concentrated in the Eaglesham-Tangent area in west-central Alberta, and m southern Alberta. Minor scattered Wabamun oil production also occurs in northwestern Alberta and in western Saskatchewan. There is no Wabamun oil production from British Columbia.
There are only three Wabamun oil fields with Initial Established Recoverable Oil Reserves of over 1 x 106m3 (6 MMBbls) These three Wabamun oil fields, listed in order of Initial Established Recoverable Reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production totals include Alberta data released to December 3l, 1990.
Table 1. Three Largest Wabamun Oil Fields (m units of 106m3).
No. | Field | Formation | No. of Pools | Marketable Reserves | In-place Volume | Cumulative Production | Discovery Year |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tangent | Wabamun | 40 | 2.1 | 12.1 | 0.9 | 1981 |
2 | Eaglesham North | Wabamun | 14 | 1.4 | 5.8 | 0.3 | 1987 |
3 | Garrington (Olds) | Wabamun A | 1 | 1.3 | 6.5 | 1.2 | 1965 |
The first two fields are structural traps resulting from porous fracture zones along the southeast margin of the Peace River Arch. The Garrington field occurs within the Crossfield Member and results from updip porosity pinchout due to increasing anhydrite content. Smaller Wabamun oil fields also occur along the eroded Wabamun unconformity edge in eastern Alberta. Twenty-nine of the 31 Wabamun oil fields contain light to medium gravity oil.
Total recoverable oil reserves in the Wabamun Group are very low compared to the other Devonian horizons, and are estimated at 7.2 x 106m3, of which 3.2 x 106m3 have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Wabamun oil reserves totals 45.6 x 106m3. There are 120 Wabamun oil pools, with average recoverable oil reserves of 60 x 103m3/pool. There are no pools with in-place volumes of over 10 x 106m3. Table 2 lists the distribution of Wabamun oil reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.
Table 2. Size Distribution of Wabamun Oil Pools (in units of 106m3).
In-Place Pool Size Class | No. of Pools | Recoverable Reserves | Cumulative Production |
---|---|---|---|
less than 0.1 | 27 | 0.21 | 0.08 |
0.1 to 1 | 87 | 5.02 | 1.77 |
1.0 to 10 | 6 | 1.93 | 1.39 |
10.0 to 100 | - | - | - |
over 100 | - | - | - |
Total | 120 | 7.17 x 106m3 | 3.23 x 106m3 |