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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 88, No. 10 (October 2004), P. 1419-1432.

Copyright copy2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

An example of alternative correlation techniques in a low-accommodation setting, nonmarine hydrocarbon system: The (Lower Cretaceous) Mannville Basal Quartz succession of southern Alberta

K. T. Ratcliffe,1 A. M. Wright,2 C. Hallsworth,3 A. Morton,4 B. A. Zaitlin,5 D. Potocki,6 D. S. Wray 7

1 Chemostrat Ltd., Unit 4 Llanfyllin Enterprise Park, Llanfyllin, Powys SY22 5LN, United Kingdom; [email protected]
2Chemostrat Inc., 6700 Portwest Drive, Houston, Texas 77024
3HM Research Associates, 100 Main Street, Woodhouse Eaves, Southborough, Leicester LE12 8RZ, United Kingdom
4HM Research Associates, 100 Main Street, Woodhouse Eaves, Southborough, Leicester LE12 8RZ, United Kingdom
5Suncor Energy Inc., Natural Gas and Renewable Energy, Prospect Generation Services, 112-4th Avenue S. W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 2VS
6EnCana Corporation, 150-9th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 2S5
7University of Greenwich, Department of Earth Sciences, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, United Kingdom

AUTHORS

Ken Ratcliffe is the chief executive officer of Chemostrat Inc. and the director of its parent company Chemostrat Ltd. Prior to cofounding Chemostrat Ltd. in 1994, Ken gained a B.Sc. degree (geology) from Imperial College, London, United Kingdom (1984) and a Ph.D. from Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom (1987). He then worked as a lecturer at the University of Kingston-upon-Thames before moving into the service sector in 1989.

Milly Wright is currently country manager for Chemostrat Inc. based in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining Chemostrat in 2000, Milly gained a B.Sc. degree (geology) from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom (2000). Milly is also currently studying for a Ph.D. in Houston.

Claire Hallsworth is a director of HM Research Associates, applying heavy-mineral stratigraphy in provenance and correlation projects. She joined HM Research in 2001 after a 15-year career in the British Geological Survey. She was educated at Leeds University and has published several papers on heavy-mineral provenance and correlation studies.

Andy Morton formed HM Research Associates, a research company that undertakes provenance and correlation studies for the hydrocarbon industry, in 2000. He also has a part-time research position in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen. He was educated at Oxford University and has a long publication list, focusing on heavy-mineral studies.

Brian Zaitlin held a variety of research and development, technical service, training, and front-line exploration/development positions with Gulf Canada, Esso, PanCanadian, and EnCana Corporation. Brian obtained his B.Sc. degree (geology) from Concordia (1979), his M.Sc. degree in geology/sedimentology from the University of Ottawa (1981), and his Ph.D. at Queen's University (1987). Brian left EnCana in 2003 to join Suncor Energy's Natural Gas and Renewable Energy Division in their Prospect Generation Services group.

Dan Potocki is presently employed as a rock characterization advisor at EnCana. His work focuses primarily on reducing rock-related risk in integrated geoengineering studies. Dan was previously employed as a research geologist at Shell, Petro-Canada, and PanCanadian. He has published several articles in a variety of geological and engineering journals. Dan has an honors geology degree from McMaster University.

Dave Wray attained his Ph.D. in 1991 from a geochemical study of bentonites in Upper Cretaceous chalks of northwest Europe. He is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich, where he manages the geochemical laboratories and lectures in applied geochemistry and sedimentology. His research interests include the application of sedimentary geochemistry to stratigraphic problems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper forms part of a regional study of the Lower Cretaceous in southern Alberta undertaken at PanCanadian Petroleum Limited (now EnCana Corporation) and is part of a larger scale ongoing investigation on the sequence stratigraphy of nonmarine to marginal marine deposits developed under varying accommodation settings. The authors wish to thank EnCana for permission to publish this study. Zaitlin specifically acknowledges the original members for the Basal Quartz Task Force who participated in the initial correlation and mapping stages of the project and to his coauthors associated with the Zaitlin et al. (2002) Basal Quartz paper. The inductively coupled plasma analyses were carried out at the University of Greenwich by Lorna Dyer. The x-ray diffraction data were supplied by M. Dix of Westport Technology Center, having been obtained by Marlene Filut of Maxray.

ABSTRACT

Chemostratigraphy and heavy-mineral techniques have been applied to the Lower Cretaceous Basal Quartz in the Western Canada sedimentary basin. The aim of the study is to demonstrate that these two techniques can be used to help understand the complex stratigraphy of reservoirs deposited in low-accommodation fluvial settings. The Basal Quartz is an ideal unit to demonstrate their applicability in stratigraphic studies of hydrocarbon reservoirs because extensive mapping and petrographic studies have enabled the establishment of a rigorous stratigraphic framework despite its complexity resulting from deposition in a low-accommodation fluvial setting.

The three component units analyzed in the Basal Quartz (Horsefly unit, Bantry–Alderson–Taber [BAT] unit, and Ellerslie unit) each have unique geochemical and heavy-mineral characteristics. Chemostratigraphic analysis shows that silty claystones from the Horsefly, BAT, and Ellerslie units have distinctly different geochemistry from one another, with the variations being caused by changes in clay mineralogy and other components, such as feldspar, apatite, and zircon. The geochemistry also suggests periodic volcanogenic input influenced the silty claystones of the Basal Quartz. Heavy-mineral analysis shows that sandstones from the three units can be distinguished on the basis of ratio parameters, such as apatite/tourmaline, rutile/zircon, and zircon/tourmaline, which are controlled by differences in provenance and intensity of weathering during transport.

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