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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

CSPG Bulletin

Abstract


Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology
Vol. 39 (1991), No. 2. (June), Pages 227-228

"Understanding Canada's East Coast Hydrocarbon Resource in the 1990's [Abstract]"

Williamson, M.A.1

ABSTRACT

A multidisciplinary research effort underway at the Atlantic Geoscience Centre attempts to develop a quantitative understanding of the hydrocarbon charge history of Canada's east coast basins. The usefulness of such research will lie in the capability of the models to predict the probable distribution, volume, and composition of undiscovered hydrocarbons for both well explored and under explored basins. Such models, ranging in scale from the molecular to the sedimentary basin, are being developed for four major elements within the project.

  1. Source rock studies focus on predicting the probability of source rock occurrence.
  2. Primary migration studies aim to establish the thermal, maturity, and pressure framework of the basins through time. A detailed source facies analysis will evaluate primary migration efficiency, which influences the volume and composition of hydrocarbons expelled from the primary system.
  3. Second migration studies model fluid flow through aquifers, taking in account permeability barrier distribution and evolution. Emphasis is on the temporal and spatial relationship of migration and diagenetic events, together with the physical connectivity of the maturing source and aquifer systems.
  4. Entrapment studies investigate trapping mechanisms and dynamics with an emphasis on detailed case studies.

Initially developed for high data volume areas of the Jeanne d'Arc and Sable basins, the predictive models and general processes are applicable in

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other less well known basins. Attributes of the models will be subsequently melded into comprehensive, numerically constrained, hydrocarbon chargerisk analyses of east coast basins. The current status of these projects and plans for the next four years are discussed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND ASSOCIATED FOOTNOTES

1 Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4A2

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