Abstract

The Cold Lake oil sands occur in the Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group, covering an area of almost 3,500 sq mi (9065 sq km) in East Central Alberta. Topographic expression of the Pre-Mannville surface influenced paralic sedimentation. A comparison of oil sand occurrence with gross sandy facies indicates that the distribution of the best oil-saturated sands is controlled by depositional environment and basin configuration.

The proved reserves of the Cold Lake oil sands are estimated to be in the order of 160 billion barrels (25.4 × 10⁹ m³) of oil in-place. The oil sands were classified into three categories — Rich, Intermediate and Lean — according to minimum oil saturation limits of 10, 5 and 3 per cent by weight. The oil saturations of the sands were determined by core analyses and log resistivity data from 412 wells. A factor of approximately 2 was used to convert oil saturation from weight per cent to volume per cent. Other factors of about 23, 15 and 8 per cent were derived from the Rich, Intermediate and Lean categories, respectively, to convert volume of mapped oil sands to volume of oil in-place.