Chapter 20 Table Gas Production from the Upper Colorado Group

Gas production from the Upper Colorado Group is widely distributed throughout southern and central Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. There is no Upper Colorado Group gas production north of Township 61 or west of the 6th Meridian. Included are fields producing from the Second Specks, Medicine Hat, Chinook, Milk River and Belly River. Note that commingled production from the Belly River and the deeper Second Specks is reported for some fields as producing from the SE Alberta Gas System.

There are 41 Upper Colorado Group gas fields (36 in Alberta and 5 in Saskatchewan) with Initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 106m3 (35 BCF). The ten largest Upper Colorado Group gas fields, listed in order of Initial Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production data for Alberta are updated to the end of 1990 and for Saskatchewan to the end of 1989.

Table 1. Ten Largest Upper Colorado Group Gas Fields (in units of 106m3).

Initial Established
No. Field Formation No. of Pools Marketable Reserves In-place Volume Cumulative Production Discovery Year
1 Medicine Hat MilkR/Medhat 42 93,611 147,009 73,453 1904
2 Hatton MilkR/Medhat 3 48,514 73,705 17,489 1953
3 Suffield MilkR/Medhat/2WS 9 45,066 67,320 22,712 1904
4 Alderson MilkR/Medhat/2WS 6 29,564 43,600 16,964 1904
5 Princess MilkR/Medhat/2WS 10 18,295 27,166 7,629 1904
6 Verger MilkR/Medhat/2WS 9 14,291 21,254 3,958 1904
7 Countess MilkR/Medhat 9 14,288 21,247 1,169 1904
8 Bigstick 2WS 1 13,754 17,236 2,700 1980
9 Bantry MilkR/Medhat/2WS 6 12,169 18,574 8,334 1904
10 Cessford MilkR/Medhat 33 11,585 17,615 2,038 1904

Eight of these fields occur in southern Alberta, and the remaining two, Hatton and Bigstick, just across the Saskatchewan border.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Upper Colorado Group are estimated at 419.3 x 109m3, of which 36.8 x 109m3 have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Upper Colorado Group gas reserves totals 645 x 109m3. There are a total of 1684 Upper Colorado Group gas pools, with an average 249 x 106m3 recoverable gas reserves/pool. Table 2 lists the distribution of Upper Colorado Group gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2. Size Distribution of Upper Colorado Group Gas Pools (in units of 106m3).

In-Place Pool Size Class No. of Pools Recoverable Reserves Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10 244 830 187
10 to 100 1113 22,523 3,434
100 to 1000 258 44,120 12,099
1000 to 10000 56 117,161 5,231
over 10000 13 234,658 15,839
Total 1684 419,292 x 106m3 36,790 x 106m3