Print this pageAbstract: Viking Formation, Alberta
The Viking Formation is a Lower Cretaceous marine-sand complex. Predominantly a gas reservoir, it was largely ignored during the search for oil-rich Devonian reefs. The recent increases in gas price have caused a surge in exploration for shallow-gas reservoirs.
Twenty to twenty-five thousand wells penetrate the Viking. A depositional model was developed based on approximately 2,000 wells chosen in an essentially random manner.
The Viking may be characterized as an offshore-bar and sheet-sand complex in Alberta with vast areas of tidal-flat deposits in the Saskatchewan part of the basin. The current-influenced deposition was predominant throughout the region. The normal beach-shoreline association generally is absent.
After subsequent tilting and compaction, with little structural modification, hydrocarbons have migrated to updip stratigraphic edges within the sand complex.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90971©1976 AAPG-SEPM Rocky Mountain Sections 25th Annual Meeting, Billings, Montana