Abstract

The hydrocarbon potential of the Peel Plateau is largely unknown, since exploration in this remote and high cost area has not progressed beyond the initial stages. Impetus to such exploration will be provided by increasing demands for oil and gas in the big market areas of the United States and Eastern Canada, and by the provision of market access through the construction of pipelines from the North Slope of Alaska and/or the Beaufort Basin of the Mackenzie Delta area of north-western Canada. As ample reservoir, source beds and oil and gas shows are present in the stratigraphic column, particularly in the carbonate and shale section from Upper Cambrian through the Devonian, and as the area has not suffered severe diastrophism, sizeable hydrocarbon accumulations should exist. It is estimated that we might reasonably expect reserves of 1200 million barrels of oil and 7.0 trillion cubic feet of gas. Whereas fields of major size may be present, it is more reasonable to expect fields on the order of 25 to 100 million barrels of oil. Because structures are not prominent and because the pooling of hydrocarbons largely will be dependent upon stratigraphic entrapment through porosity variability, the discovery of pools will be very difficult and costly. Eastward fluid migration associated with a sinking carbonate shelf throughout much of Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian time may have permitted hydrocarbons to escape beyond the area, creating an additional adverse factor.