Patricia Gonzalez Hernandez, PhD Student, University of Alberta

Biography:

Patricia received a Bachelor’s Degree in Geological Engineering and an MSc in Geological Sciences from the Central University of Venezuela. As an undergraduate student, Patricia worked as an intern at Vinccler Oil and Gas C.A, characterizing the sedimentology of a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession in western Venezuela using both surface and subsurface data sets and creating stratigraphic maps and cross sections. During her MSc studies, Patricia worked as a Graduate Intern at INTEVEP (Venezuela) analyzing the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Oligocene-Miocene carbonate successions equivalent to gas bearing carbonates offshore in the Gulf of Venezuela, and gained experience in biostratigraphic analysis using foraminifera. In 2016 Patricia joined the Ichnology Research Group as a PhD student at the University of Alberta and is currently working on the sedimentology and stratigraphic architecture of the Early Triassic Montney Formation, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, under the supervision of Dr. John-Paul Zonneveld.

Project: Sedimentology, Chemostratigraphy and Stratigraphic Architecture of the Lower Triassic Montney Formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, British Columbia

The Montney Formation, one of North America’s premiere unconventional plays, is characterized by subtle heterogeneities associated with fine grain size and small size trace fossils which constitute a primary control on reservoir quality. These heterogeneities require detailed integrated analyses to establish a refined and robust depositional model, to help understand facies distribution, reservoir geometries and stratigraphic framework. This will contribute in the understanding of the internal architecture of the formation, to help reduce uncertainty and risk in the development of this unconventional reservoir. The purpose of this research is to establish the depositional model and stratigraphic architecture of the Montney Formation in northeastern BC, based on detailed sedimentological and ichnological analyses of drill core, mineralogical evaluation using petrographic, geochemical and SEM analyses, chemostratigraphic analysis and petrophysical analysis for sequence stratigraphic interpretations.

Deliverables