About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 52 (1968)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 529

Last Page: 530

Title: Upper Devonian Previous HitReefNext Hit Oil Field--Redwater, Alberta, Canada: ABSTRACT

Author(s): R. O. Grieve

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Redwater oil field discovered in 1948 has inplace reserves of 1,300 million bbl, about 64 percent of which will be recovered. The field is a single pool 58 sq mi in area along the updip edge of a large Late Devonian (Frasnian) limestone Previous HitreefNext Hit complex.

The complex is more than 800 ft thick, roughly triangular in plan and about 225 sq mi in area. More than 900 wells have been drilled in the field area where normal forereef, Previous HitreefNext Hit, and backreef facies are recognized. Porosity and permeability were influenced by diagenesis, but conform with the primary facies patterns.

The Redwater Previous HitreefNext Hit grew during a major subcycle within the Kaskaskian sequence. Transgression over shoal carbonate of the previous subcycle created a

End_Page 529------------------------------

"Previous HitreefNext Hit-prone" shelf of moderate depth. The Previous HitreefNext Hit was enveloped by clayey and carbonate muds which prograded across the shelf. Nearly 3,000 million bbl of recoverable oil in Redwater and nine companion reefs attests to favorable trap-to-source relations in this basin setting.

Previous HitRecognitionNext Hit of "Previous HitreefNext Hit-prone" cycles of deposition and early understanding of the depositional/tectonic framework which affects Previous HitreefTop distribution are important in guiding exploration for Redwater-like reefs in new areas. Local, less predictable factors can influence the effectiveness of the reefs as traps and the success of exploration. Subsequent basin history is critical, for depth of burial affects the feasibility of seismic exploration and imposes regional eometamorphic patterns of hydrocarbon distribution.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 530------------

Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists