Geoscience BC to evaluate new oil plays for northeastern British Columbia
September 23, 2015 - Geoscience BC are launching a new project to identify and characterize the underdeveloped resource oil potential buried in northeastern British Columbia.
The northeast region of the province currently produces about 20,000 barrels/day, according to CAPP, or about one per cent of Canada's production. This project will explore potential new resource oil plays in the northeastern BC portion of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.
Petroleum exploration and development has occurred in northeastern BC since 1952 with over 18,000 wells drilled to date. Many of these are conventional oil wells drilled into rock formations where it is relatively easy to extract the oil using conventional methods.
"Much of the easy-to-access oil has been extracted using traditional, vertical wells targeting production from single formations. We are now looking for the oil reserves which have been overlooked in the past because they are more difficult to reach, but that are now possible to access with modern drilling and completion technology," explains Brad Hayes, President of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. and leader of the project.
Together with Taurus Reservoir Solutions Ltd. and Trican Geological Solutions, the experienced project team plan to evaluate reservoir characteristics, rock properties, hydrogeology, organic geochemistry, burial history, production history, and other technical factors relevant in identifying new exploration and exploitation areas.
The potential for underdeveloped resources in NE BC is promising. New deposits will likely be in the form of unconventional plays, where the oil is held tightly in low permeability rocks, in 'halo' oil plays on the fringes of existing reservoirs, in stacked thin or low-quality reservoirs, or in shales and mudstones.
Reservoir samples from the most promising plays will be analyzed and combined with regional geological work to characterize oil resource potential and to assist oil companies exploring in northeastern British Columbia.
The project will be steered by a technical Project Advisory Committee made up of Geoscience BC technical advisers with expertise in resource oil and experts from the Canadian Society for Unconventional Resources.
About the project team
Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. (PRCL) (www.petrelrob.com) is a fully integrated petroleum geoscience consulting firm, with a wealth of expertise in unconventional oil and gas exploration, appraisal, and development in Canada. We have produced comprehensive regional assessments of petroleum and natural gas resources in Canada and internationally for more than thirty years, with a focus on unconventional reservoirs over the past decade. We have worked extensively in NEBC, on plays in Devonian through Upper Cretaceous reservoirs.
Taurus Reservoir Solutions Ltd. (Taurus) (www.taurusrs.com), a subsidiary of CGG (an international, fully-integrated geoscience company), supplies geomechanics and reservoir engineering expertise to support the definition and characterization of unconventional oil reservoirs. Taurus is a reservoir engineering and geomechanics company, which has been active since 2001. They are experts at analyzing problems coupling the reservoir response with hydraulic fracturing processes. Senior staff at Taurus have been involved in the design and analysis of hydraulic fracturing treatments since the mid-1980's, and have been participating in the rapid changes associated with the shale gas/oil revolution over the last 10 years. Taurus has been involved in everything from detailed modeling to high-level data mining. Our current goal in most projects is to see what works and does not work in the field, and most importantly to determine why.
Trican Geological Solutions (TGS) (www.tricanwellservice.com/geological-solutions), an Alberta corporation, was founded in 2000 (formerly CBM Solutions Ltd.). TGS initially formed to evaluate coalbed methane projects throughout Canada and the United States and evolved through technical focus and research to become a leader in the field of unconventional resource analysis and testing. As part of Canada's largest pressure pumping services company, Trican Well Service, the Geological Solutions personnel understand and provide evaluations and data instrumental in understanding reservoir development and ultimately enhancing well completion efforts. Current offerings include a complete array of laboratory analytical testing, geological studies, project evaluation and consulting for shale, tight-rock and coalbed methane reservoirs. In-house analyses and programs include rock mechanics, extensive testing of rock properties, gas-in-place and oil-in-place modeling, natural gas liquids yield modeling, petrophysical modeling and petrographic, SEM and CT imaging.
Visit our Resource Oil project page for more details.
For more information, please contact:
Kylie Williams
Communications Manager
Geoscience BC
604.662.4147
Geoscience BC is a trusted partner providing earth science to encourage investment that benefits all British Columbians. www.geosciencebc.com
The northeast region of the province currently produces about 20,000 barrels/day, according to CAPP, or about one per cent of Canada's production. This project will explore potential new resource oil plays in the northeastern BC portion of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.
Petroleum exploration and development has occurred in northeastern BC since 1952 with over 18,000 wells drilled to date. Many of these are conventional oil wells drilled into rock formations where it is relatively easy to extract the oil using conventional methods.
"Much of the easy-to-access oil has been extracted using traditional, vertical wells targeting production from single formations. We are now looking for the oil reserves which have been overlooked in the past because they are more difficult to reach, but that are now possible to access with modern drilling and completion technology," explains Brad Hayes, President of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. and leader of the project.
Together with Taurus Reservoir Solutions Ltd. and Trican Geological Solutions, the experienced project team plan to evaluate reservoir characteristics, rock properties, hydrogeology, organic geochemistry, burial history, production history, and other technical factors relevant in identifying new exploration and exploitation areas.
The potential for underdeveloped resources in NE BC is promising. New deposits will likely be in the form of unconventional plays, where the oil is held tightly in low permeability rocks, in 'halo' oil plays on the fringes of existing reservoirs, in stacked thin or low-quality reservoirs, or in shales and mudstones.
Reservoir samples from the most promising plays will be analyzed and combined with regional geological work to characterize oil resource potential and to assist oil companies exploring in northeastern British Columbia.
The project will be steered by a technical Project Advisory Committee made up of Geoscience BC technical advisers with expertise in resource oil and experts from the Canadian Society for Unconventional Resources.
About the project team
Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. (PRCL) (www.petrelrob.com) is a fully integrated petroleum geoscience consulting firm, with a wealth of expertise in unconventional oil and gas exploration, appraisal, and development in Canada. We have produced comprehensive regional assessments of petroleum and natural gas resources in Canada and internationally for more than thirty years, with a focus on unconventional reservoirs over the past decade. We have worked extensively in NEBC, on plays in Devonian through Upper Cretaceous reservoirs.
Taurus Reservoir Solutions Ltd. (Taurus) (www.taurusrs.com), a subsidiary of CGG (an international, fully-integrated geoscience company), supplies geomechanics and reservoir engineering expertise to support the definition and characterization of unconventional oil reservoirs. Taurus is a reservoir engineering and geomechanics company, which has been active since 2001. They are experts at analyzing problems coupling the reservoir response with hydraulic fracturing processes. Senior staff at Taurus have been involved in the design and analysis of hydraulic fracturing treatments since the mid-1980's, and have been participating in the rapid changes associated with the shale gas/oil revolution over the last 10 years. Taurus has been involved in everything from detailed modeling to high-level data mining. Our current goal in most projects is to see what works and does not work in the field, and most importantly to determine why.
Trican Geological Solutions (TGS) (www.tricanwellservice.com/geological-solutions), an Alberta corporation, was founded in 2000 (formerly CBM Solutions Ltd.). TGS initially formed to evaluate coalbed methane projects throughout Canada and the United States and evolved through technical focus and research to become a leader in the field of unconventional resource analysis and testing. As part of Canada's largest pressure pumping services company, Trican Well Service, the Geological Solutions personnel understand and provide evaluations and data instrumental in understanding reservoir development and ultimately enhancing well completion efforts. Current offerings include a complete array of laboratory analytical testing, geological studies, project evaluation and consulting for shale, tight-rock and coalbed methane reservoirs. In-house analyses and programs include rock mechanics, extensive testing of rock properties, gas-in-place and oil-in-place modeling, natural gas liquids yield modeling, petrophysical modeling and petrographic, SEM and CT imaging.
Visit our Resource Oil project page for more details.
For more information, please contact:
Kylie Williams
Communications Manager
Geoscience BC
604.662.4147
Geoscience BC is a trusted partner providing earth science to encourage investment that benefits all British Columbians. www.geosciencebc.com