ABSTRACT

This two-part special issue of the Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology evolved from a technical session on "Marine Conglomerate Reservoirs" at the 2002 CSPG Diamond Jubilee Convention. The session was highlighted by eight oral and three poster presentations, seven of which formed the basis for manuscript contributions. The intent of the original technical session, as well as this subsequent special two-part publication, was to assemble a collection of targeted presentations covering a spectrum of topics relevant to hydrocarbon exploration in conglomerate reservoirs of marine origin in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The majority of these conglomeratic units are natural gas reservoirs that comprise the backbone of the Deep Basin's productivity, and include some of the most prolific gas horizons in all of western Canada. From a global perspective, reservoirs of this geological nature and origin are relatively unique, if not rare. However, they are not uncommon in the Cretaceous of Alberta and British Columbia. Some, such as the Cardium and Viking formations, have been the focus of numerous studies, geological investigations and exploration drilling. However, for those conglomerate reservoirs of shallow marine origin within the Deep Basin, there has been little published work made available since the landmark AAPG Memoir 38 publication of Masters (1984). This lack of current information in the public domain, coupled with the recent completion of several relevant University theses and industry funded geological investigations, provided the impetus for the editors to compile these publications.

This two-part publication was designed to be broad in its scope, and as such provides a multi-disciplinary approach to the investigation and prediction of shallow marine conglomerate reservoir facies. Topics range from sedimentary processes and geomorphology of modern day graveliferous shorelines to the sedimentological, stratigraphic and ichnological analyses of conglomerates in outcrop and subsurface. Of greatest and most immediate practicality to the geoscientist involved in the exploration of conglomerate reservoirs, are the regional subsurface investigations of natural gas bearing horizons from the Deep Basin. However, we remind our industry colleagues that while time is almost always of the essence in the oil and gas business, the non-immediately applied investigations published in this two-part publication, or any other of a similar bent, provide the building blocks and tools to understanding the internal architecture and prediction of conglomerate reservoirs in general. It is for these reasons, that these publications provides a collection of both recent results from University research and industry work as well as summary articles of investigations of gravel and conglomerates of shallow marine origin. For reasons of efficiency and cost, the special publication has been divided into part one (December, 2003) and part two (March, 2004). The two-part publication includes fivetopical headings discussed below.