Alberta Geological Survey

Gas Production from the Upper Mannville

Gas production from the Upper Mannville is extensive and widely distributed throughout southern, central and western Alberta, northeast B.C. and western Saskatchewan. There are a multitude of Upper Mannville gas pools of all sizes and covering much of the southern two-thirds of Alberta. There is no Upper Mannville gas production in northern Alberta or B.C. or in central or eastern Saskatchewan. Included are fields producing from the Colony, Grand Rapids, Spirit River, Notikewin, McLaren, Waseca, Father, Sparky, Wainwnght, Clearwater, General Petroleum, Rex, Cummings, Bluesky, Glauconitic and Wabiskaw.

There are 139 Upper Mannville gas fields (all in Alberta except for 6 in B.C. and 3 in Saskatchewan) with Initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 10⁶m³ (35 BCF). The ten largest Upper Mannville gas fields, listed in order of Inihal Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production data for Alberta and British Columbia are updated to the end of 1990 and for Saskatchewan to the end of 1989.

Table 1. Ten Largest Upper Mannville Gas Fields (in units of 10⁶m³).

Initial Established

No.	Field	Formation	No. of Pools	Marketable Reserves	In-place Volume	Cumulative Production	Discovery Year
1	Elmwroth	Falher	74	33,078	44,803	16,962	1955
2	Marten Hills	Wabiskaw	46	25,078	35,018	17,211	1960
3	Westerose South	Glauconitic	8	15,415	24,413	5,897	1977
4	Leismer	Clearwater	28	15,248	24,759	6,023	1974
5	Provost	Upper Mnvl	365	14,536	21,650	5,435	1946
6	Ghost Pine	UMnvl/Glauc	74	13,974	20,573	8,845	1952
7	Cessford	Mannville	124	13,892	19,635	8,195	1949
8	Kaybob	Notikewin	9	13,108	15,979	10,543	1957
9	Wapiti	Flhr/Notikwn	47	12,749	17,150	7,905	1977
10	Hussar	Glauconic	71	12,238	16,388	8,664	1951

These ten largest Upper Mannville gas fields all occur in central, western and southern Alberta. There are a large number of Upper Mannville gas fields, primarily in stratigraphic traps which result from facies changes.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Upper Mannville are estimated at 644.8 x 10⁹m³, of which 188.9 x 10⁹m³ have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Upper MannviDe gas reserves totals 1016 x 10⁹m³. There are a total of 9126 Upper Mannville gas pools, with an average of only 71 x 10⁶m³ recoverable gas reserves/pool. Table 2 lists the distribution of Upper Mannville gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2. Size Distribution of Upper Mannville Gas Pools (in units of 10⁶m³).

In-Place Pool Size Class	No. of Pools	Recoverable Reserves	Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10	1841	6,268	1,549
10 to 100	5708	128,329	24,701
100 to 1000	1456	239,742	88,369
1000 to 10000	114	194,406	65,122
over 10000	7	76,030	9,136
Total	9126	644,774 x 106m3	188,877 x 106m3