Print this pageSimonette Beaverhill Lake Oil Pool: Discovery History, Reservoir Characterization and Depletion Strategy
Les R. Ollenberger and Tony L. Cortis
A significant light oil discovery was made in reefal carbonates of the Middle-Upper Devonian Swan Hills Formation of the Beaverhill Lake Group in west-central Alberta in September, 1993. The discovery well, Chevron Simonette 7-20-64-26W5, encountered a dolomitized Swan Hills reef margin with 28 meters of net oil pay and was capable of producing 750 m3 (4700 barrels) of oil per day. A total of eighteen wells have been drilled into the a pool to date.
The accumulation at Simonette is divided into two pools (Beaverhill Lake A and B) by a north-south trending fault. The pools are the twelfth and fourteenth largest Swan Hills oil pools discovered to date and the largest Swan Hills oil pools discovered since 1962.
The pools have an average net pay of 13.5 meters, with average porosity of approximately 9% and average water saturation of 7%. Porosity is present within both dolomite and limestone and the distribution of the reservoir is controlled by depositional facies. The density of the oil is 808 kg/m3 (43° API) and the gas/oil ratio is 325 m3/m3. The solution gas has an H2S content of 1.5%.
Initial reservoir studies indicate that 48% of the oil in place in the A Pool can be recovered with a hydrocarbon miscible flood, which was initiated in March, 1995. A water flood, with anticipated recovery of 41% of the oil in place, will be initiated in the B Pool in early 1996.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California