Alberta Geological Survey

Gas Production from the Beaverhill Lake Group

Gas production from the Beaverhill Lake Group is primarily derived from three sources, namely reefs in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta, the foothills of south-central Alberta, and as solution gas in the Swan Hills oil fields in central Alberta.

There are 30 Beaverhill Lake gas fields with Initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 10⁶ m³ (35 BCF). The ten largest Beaverhill Lake gas fields, listed in order of Initial Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown n in Table 1. Cumulative production data include figures released to the end of 1990.

Table1. Ten Largest Beaverhill Lake Gas Fields (in units of 10⁶m³)

Initial Established

No.	Field	Formation	No. of Pools	Marketable Reserves	In-place Volume	Cumulative Production	Discovery Year
1	Clarke Lake	Slave Point	3	42,442	62,433	40,530	1956
2	Kaybob South	Beaverhill L	3	36,589	104,754	18,798	1961
3	Hanlan	Beaverhill L	2	25,479	42,465	7,318	1974
4	Caroline	Beaverhill L	1	21,274	61,958	132	1986
5	Blackstone	Beaverhill L	1	13,600	22,666	2,463	1979
6	Cranberry	Slave Point	4	11,452	16,868	4,127	1974
7	Hamburg	Slave Point	4	11,227	13,932	1,380	1983
8	Rosevear	Beaverhill L	2	9,600	13,190	4,664	1971
9	Swan Hills	SHM solution	2	9,011	36,601	8,521	1957
10	Judy Creek	SHM solution	3	8,927	48,399	7,643	1959

The largest field, Clarke Lake, occurs along the Slave Point reef edge flanking the Horn River Basin in northeastern British Columbia. The next seven fields occur in stratigraphic traps at the up-dip edge of Swan Hills-Slave Point reefs. The most recent major discovery of Beaverhill Lake gas reserves was m the Caroline area in 1985.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Beaverhill Lake are estimated at 262.4 x 10⁶m³, of which 111.2 x 10⁶m³ have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Beaverhill Lake gas reserves totals 564.2 x 10⁶m³. There are a total of 330 Beaverhill Lake gas pools, with an average 795 x 10³m³ recoverable gas reserves/pool. Table 2 lists the distribution of Beaverhill Lake gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2. Size Distribution of Beaverhill Lake Gas Pools (in units of 10⁶m³)

In-Place Pool Size Class	No. of Pools	Recoverable Reserves	Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10	78	328	3
10 to 100	136	2,292	74
100 to 1000	73	14,658	2,837
1000 to 10000	31	51,940	23,904
over 10000	12	193,215	84,406
Total	330	262,433 x 106m3	111,224 x 106m3