--> Abstract: Cores Demonstrating the Depositional Environments of the McMurray Formatin in the Northern Most Activity of the Athabasca Oil Sands Area: Exploring the World's Largest Energy System, by Errin Kimball, Murray K. Gingras, S. George Pemberton, and Georgia L. Hoffman; #90039 (2005)

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

Cores Demonstrating the Depositional Environments of the McMurray Formatin in the Northern Most Activity of the Athabasca Oil Sands Area: Exploring the World's Largest Energy System

Errin Kimball1, Murray K. Gingras2, S. George Pemberton2, and Georgia L. Hoffman3
1 Synenco Energy Inc, Calgary, AB
2 University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
3 Norwest Corporation, Calgary, AB

Synenco's Northern Lights Project (NLP), located in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area, 110 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, represents the northern-most activity in the oil sands. Centered in Townships 98 and 99, Ranges 5 to 7 west of the Fourth Meridian, the Project is designed to produce more than 100,000 barrels per day of synthetic crude over a 30-year life.

Mineable oil-sand resources are hosted in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) McMurray Fm. of the Mannville Gp. Over much of the Athabasca deposit, the McMurray Fm is informally subdivided into a lower fluvial member, a middle estuarine member and an upper marginal-marine member. In the NLP, most of the bitumen is contained within basally situated fluvial deposits: these accumulated in riverine systems that drained the nearby Precambrian Athabasca quartzite. Thus, much of the bitumen at the NLP is contained within relatively clean, medium- to coarse-grained quartz sand. Compared to overlaying estuarine and marine members, the pore water is relatively fresh, and the amount of "fine" (-44mm) clay material is significantly lower. The low amount of fines presents an opportunity to apply innovative mining, ore handling and pre-processing methods, because the relative absence of 'fine' material means that traditional approaches to primary ore processing are not necessary. The challenge of delineating and modeling channel trends has required detailed logging of sedimentary cores for sedimentological and biological content. Moreover, the integration of core data, core analyses and down-hole geophysics has provided an effective tool for interpreting the channel trends. These data combined with interpreted structural controls thereby dictate mapping strategies for the NLP.

In this study, cores from the NLP are presented, along with downhole geophysical logs and other data. These are intepretted to show the main facies associations used to map channelized elements of the NLP.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005