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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 57 (1973)

Issue: 5. (May)

First Page: 955

Last Page: 955

Title: Grand Forks (Cretaceous) Oil Field: Discovery and Development, Southern Alberta: ABSTRACT

Author(s): A. D. Berry

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Grand Forks field is in south-central Alberta, where the earliest drilling took place in 1909. The Grand Forks field was discovered in 1968, with most of the development drilling being done in 1971. It produces 26° API oil from a Lower Cretaceous sandstone of Neocomian to Aptian age. This sandstone is a channel sand trending NW-SE along the subcrop edge of the Jurassic. The Jurassic is highly incised in this area. Much of the sand in the Grand Forks field is believed to have as its source the underlying Sawtooth.

Primary features are common, consisting mainly of black laminae dipping at high angles. These appear to be black shale laminations at first glance, but closer examination by X-ray analysis reveals a remarkedly pure sand. On ignition this dark content yields a residual ash indicating its bituminous nature. Grain-size analysis reveals a high degree of sorting.

The field average porosity is 25% and the average permeability 3,000 md. Average connate water saturation has been determined from cores taken in oil to be 25%.

The field has been outlined by drilling with 24 wells either on production or being capable of production. These wells produce from a pay section up to 92 ft thick, revealing a reservoir containing more than 100 million bbl of oil in place.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists