Chapter 12 Table Gas Production from the Winterburn Group

View Table 12.4b as an image.

Gas production from the Winterburn Group occurs primarily in west-central Alberta, in northeastern British Columbia and along the unconformity edge of northeastern Alberta.

There are 30 Winterburn gas fields with initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 106m3 (35 BCF). The ten largest Winterburn gas fields, listed in order of Initial Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production totals include Alberta and British Columbia data released to December 31, 1990.

Table 1. Ten Largest Winterburn Gas Fields (in units of 106m3).

Initial Established
No. Field Formation No. of Pools Marketable Reserves In-place Volume Cumulative Production Discovery Year
1 Brazeau River Nisku 27 11,644 24,019 993 1977
2 Helmet North Jean Marie 1 5,434 6,793 624 1976
3 Pembina Nisku 25 3,337 6,373 1,861 1976
4 Calling Lake Nisku 2 2,705 4,097 1,798 1964
5 Leduc-Woodbend Nisku 4 2,676 6,152 2,480 1947
6 Obed Nisku 2 2,593 5,320 88 1956
7 Figure Lake Nisku 22 2,522 4,076 1,844 1951
8 Fenn-Big Valley Nisku 4 2,060 6,787 1,791 1952
9 Kaybob South Nisku 5 1,944 3,809 225 1958
10 West Pembina Nisku 5 1,719 3,400 45 1977

The Brazeau River, Pembina and West Pembina fields occur in patch reefs along the southeast margin of the West Pembina Basin area of west-central Alberta. The Helmet North gas field is in the northeast comer of British Columbia. A number of smaller Winterburn gas fields are present along the unconformity edge of northeastern Alberta and include the Calling Lake field. The Leduc-Woodbend and Fenn-Big Valley gas fields occur as solution gas associated with Winterburn oil fields.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Winterburn Group are relatively small, compared to the other Devonian horizons, and are est mated at 66.7 x 109m3, of which 23.1 x 109m3 (i.e. 35%) have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Winterburn gas reserves totals 132.9 x 109m3. There are a total of 366 Winterburn gas pools, with an average 182 x 106m3 recoverable gas reserves/pool. Reflecting this smaller average pool size, there are no pools with in-place volumes of over 10,000 x 106m3. Table 2 lists the distribution of Winterburn gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2. Size Distribution of Winterburn Gas Pools (in units of 106m3).

In-Place Pool Size Class No. of Pools Recoverable Reserves Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10 40 122 45
10 to 100 153 3,829 1,010
100 to 1000 150 30,980 13,694
1000 to 10000 23 31,735 8,331
over 10000 - - -
Total 366 66,666 x 106m3 23,080 x 106m3