Table 23.2a

Oil Production from the Cardium.

Table 23.2b

Gas production from the Cardium.

Figure 23.1

Cardium Formation structure map, illustrating present regional dip to the southwest, caused mainly by thrust sheet loading from the Cordilleran Orogen to the southwest. The dominant tectonic element on this map is Bow Basin. Subsidiary tectonic elements are Calgary Platform (Williams and Burk, 1964) and Grande Prairie and Pincher Creek sub-basins.

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Figure 23.2

Cardium Formation isopach map highlighting the regional distribution of the formation between 49° and 55°N latitude. Note that the formation wedges eastward and has two depositional lobes (Nordegg and Highwood). Map also illustrates distribution of major Cardium Formation oil and gas fields.

Figure 23.3

a. Cardium Formation lithostratigraphic member subdivisions in outcrops of the Alberta and northeast British Columbia foothills (after Stott, 1963, 1967). b. Cardium Formation stratigraphic subdivisions in the subsurface, lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic (Krause and Nelson, 1984; Deutsch and Krause, 1990; Deutsch, 1992) and allostratigraphic (Plint et al., 1986, 1987, 1988).

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Figure 23.4

Cardium Formation paleogeographic maps depicting distribution of five major lithosomes. a. Inferred paleogeography during early Cardium Formation deposition, including the Ram, Moosehound and lower Pembina River members. The Ram and Moosehound members contain a succession of lithosomes that are progradational and are representative of shoreface, beach, backshore, lagoon, marsh and paleosol, and tidal channel deposits. Lower Pembina River Member rocks encompass offshore (inner and outer shelf) and offshore bar lithosomes. b. Inferred paleogeography during middle Cardium Formation deposition, including the Kiska, Cardinal, Mooosehound and upper Pembina River members. The distribution of lithosomes reflects a seaward shift of sedimentation in response to sea-level fall. c. Inferred paleogeography during late Cardium Formation deposition, following a landward shift of sedimentation in response to sea-level rise. Stratigraphic units included in this interval are the Leyland, Sturrock, Moosehound and Cardium Zone members. Lithologies associated with this stage of deposition reflect dominant mudstone and lesser sandstone accumulation. Lithosome successions and associations are typical of muddy inner and outer shelves, muddy and sandy shorefaces, and muddy coastal plains. Figure courtesy Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd., Mr. D. Smith.

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Figure 23.5

Self potential, resistivity, conductivity, gamma-ray and sonic log traces for the Cardium Formation in well 7-4-49-12W5. Note that the vertical scale (1:2150) is larger than the Atlas standard for reference logs (1:3000). Log traces illustrate responses for the Cardium Zone Member and the Pembina River Member. The Cardium Zone Marker defines the top of the formation and the Russian Marker highlights the base of the formation. Wireline log responses for the formation are typical of central and eastern areas of Nordegg Lobe. Note that SP logs of the Cardium Formation are normally recorded at 4 millivolts, not 10 millivolts as has been done for this well. Furthermore, in older Cardium Formation fields, available wireline log suites are typically restricted to self potential, resistivity, conductivity and radioactivity logs.

Figure 23.6

Electrofacies map highlighting characteristic and variable resistivity responses of the Cardium Formation in Nordegg and Highwood lobes. Note that resistivity responses greater than 25 ohm m are more common in Nordegg Lobe than in Highwood Lobe, a consequence of greater abundance of porous deposits over this area (see also Figure 23.4b - middle Cardium Formation deposition map). Note further that the distinct resistivity shoulder of the Cardium Zone Member top in the Nordegg Lobe is replaced by a broader and complex shoulder with several small but recurring peaks. Geometric symbols identify a well's geographic location and the resistivity log's arithmetic and logarithmic scales.

Figure 23.7

Lithological log based on core from the Pembina reservoir, well 16-14-49-8W5, illustrating sandy parasequence sets in the upper Pembina River Member (for additional details see Joiner, 1991).

Figure 23.8

Pembina Field maps. a. Conglomerate thickness and distribution. Note that conglomerate distribution is discontinuous and patchy, varying in thickness and lateral extent. The map database consists of approximately 1400 cored wells. Contours are set at 0.1, 1.0, 3.0, and 9.0 m. b. Water-oil ratio map for 1982 (ERCB production data). The unit of measurement is Log WOR. The contour interval is 0.4 /. Note that areas of high WOR are associated with areas of thick conglomerate. c. Isopach map of the Cardium Zone Member (top datum) illustrating ridge and swale topography on the top of the Pembina Field reservoir. Because the datum is at the top, larger isopach values represent greater distances from the datum and thus isolines with larger values highlight topographic lows on the underlying surface. Conversely, lower isoline values represent topographic highs. The surface topography highlighted by this map includes areas with conglomerate and sandstone and reflects the transgressive marine erosion surface remaining after sea level rose. Following transgression, as water depth increased, bottom shear stresses were insufficient to continue reworking conglomerates and sandstones. As a result, mudstones accumulated instead, burying and sealing underlying deposits and draping the transgressive erosion surface. The contour interval is 2 m. d. Isopach map of the interval from the Cardium Zone Marker (top datum) to the unconformity that separates sandstones from conglomerates in the Pembina River Member. This map illustrates the subdued ridge and swale topography that separates capping conglomerates from underlying sandstone parasequences. This surface is a composite unconformity that resulted from autocyclic erosion during progradation of the sandstone parasequence set and ravinement during sea-level rise. Note again, as above (Fig. 23.8c), that larger isopach values represent lows in the basal surface. The contour interval is 2 m. Conglomerates thicker than one metre, that overlie sandstones beneath the composite unconformity are highlighted in red (for additional details see Krause et al., 1987b).

Figure 23.9

a. Isopach map of sandy parasequence 3 in the Tp 48-49, R 7-8W5 area of the Pembina reservoir. Datum is the Violet Grove marker (Joiner, 1991). Note that the datum is at the top; thus on the underlying surface larger and smaller isopach values are lows and highs, respectively. The map illustrates offlap to the southeast. In addition, this parasequence has a broad saddle with a northwest-southeast axis in Township 48. b. Electric log cross section, 5 km long, oriented in the northwest-southeast direction, highlighting offlapping parasequences 1-4.

Figure 23.10

Sequence stratigraphic depiction of the geometric arrangement of lowstand, transgressive and highstand systems tracts, modified from van Wagoner et al. (1990). Inset box illustrates interpreted sequence stratigraphic setting in Pembina Field deposits. Note that sandstones represent the lowstand wedge of a lowstand systems tract and conglomerates above the unconformity are predominantly elements of the retrogradational parasequence set of a transgressive systems tract (Joiner, 1991; Joiner and Krause, 1991).

Figure 23.11

Isopach map of the lower Pembina River Member, Crossfield reservoir. This deposit is a sandstone and conglomerate body that accumulated on the Turonian seafloor as a submarine ridge (for additional details see Krause and Nelson, 1991).

Figure 23.12

Perspective diagram of the Crossfield reservoir submarine ridge. Surfaces generated from resistivity log markers above and below the reservoir. Datum is the Cardium Zone Member top marker, viewing angle is 22° above the horizon (Krause and Nelson, 1991). Note development of the ridge over a topographic inhomogeneity and eastward and southward progradation.

Figure 23.13

Southwest-northeast lithofacies cross section of the Crossfield reservoir along line H-H'highlighted on Figure 23.11 (for details see Krause and Nelson, 1991). Note that the reservoir is encased in shale and thus the field represents a stratigraphic trap. As illustrated in Figures 23.11 and 23.12, Crossfield is a ridge that is shaped as an asymmetrical wedge, pinching-out to the east, grading into bioturbated sandstones and mudstones to the west, coarsening and shoaling upward.

Figure 23.14

Composite lithology log for Cardium Formation in the Kakwa region, illustrating thickness, relative percentage sandstone, approximate grain sizes, characteristic sedimentary structures, interpreted sedimentary environments and stratigraphic subdivisions (for additional details see Deutsch, 1992). Note sandstone-dominated Ram Member and mudstone-dominated Moosehound and Cardium Zone members.

Figure 23.15

Stratigraphic cross section (core and wireline log) of the Cardium Formation in the Kakwa region, illustrating regional characteristics of the Ram, Moosehound and Cardium Zone members (Deutsch, 1992). Note the variable base of the Ram Member and a regional autocyclic unconformity separating the Ram and Moosehound members. The contacts between the members, however, are transitional in terms of lithofacies and lithosome successions - environments change progressively, from shoreface and beach environments to lagoon and tidal marsh environments (see also Figure 23.14). Note also the channel complexes within the Moosehound Member and a regional allocyclic unconformity between the Moosehound and Cardium Zone members. In this instance, lithofacies and lithosome succession shift is sharp, changing from coastal plain to inner shelf and prodelta mudstones. In addition, note the multiple, variably continuous unconformities and sandstone lithosomes within the Cardium Zone Member; and a regional allocyclic unconformity at the top of the Cardium Zone Member, marking the top of the formation.

Figure 23.16

Block diagrams depicting depositional scenarios envisioned for accumulation of the Cardium Formation in the Kakwa region of Alberta (for additional details see Deutsch, 1992). a. Setting during accumulation of the Ram and Moosehound members; diagram illustrates sandy progradational shoreface and coastal plain regime typical of early Cardium Formation deposition. b. Setting during accumulation of the Moosehound and Cardium Zone members; diagram illustrates the muddy coastline regime typical of late Cardium Formation deposition.

Figure 23.17

Cardium Formation hydrocarbon volumes. a. Initial known volume of hydrocarbons stored in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin of Alberta (ERCB 870-17). b. Established known remaining reserves of hydrocarbons in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin of Alberta (ERCB 87-18). Note that in both instances the Cardium Formation represents approximately 20 percent of the hydrocarbons identified in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin as initial volume-in-place and as remaining established reserves. This hydrocarbon volume, stored in approximately 42 reservoirs, places this unit in the category of a supergiant formation.