Gas Production from the Wabamun Group

Gas production from the Wabamun Group is primarily derived from Crossfield Member stratigraphic traps in southern Alberta, structural traps in the foothills and from unconformity edge traps in east-central Alberta.

There are nineteen Wabamun gas fields with Initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 10⁶m³ (35 BCF), 17 in Alberta and 2 in British Columbia. The ten largest Wabamun gas fields, listed in order of Initial Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production totals include Alberta and British Columbia data released to December 31, 1990.

Table 1- Ten Largest Wabamun Gas Fields (in units of 10⁶m³)

**Initial Established**
No.	Field	Formation	No. of Pools	Marketable Reserves	In-place Volume	Cumulative Production	Discovery Year
1	Nevis	Wabamun	2	17,195	36,774	17,170	1952
2	Crossfield	Crossfield	1	13,573	37,725	11,282	1954
3	Crossfield E	Crossfield	2	12,450	34,424	10,254	1959
4	Lone Pine Creek	Crossfield	3	9,067	16,500	6,795	1954
5	Pine Creek	Wabamun	4	8,303	14,873	6,498	1955
6	Okotoks	Crossfield	3	6,146	25,939	4,027	1950
7	Parkland	Wabamun	2	5,859	6,510	3,057	1955
8	Garrington	Wab'n sol'n	3	5,800	10,588	4,536	1951
9	Limestone	Wabamun	3	3,963	7,606	1,564	1974
10	Waterton	Wabamun	6	2,447	3,937	314	1957

Four of these ten largest Wabamun gas fields occur m Crossfield Member stratigraphic traps and result from updip porosity pinchout due to increasing anhydrite content. The Limestone and Waterton fields occur in structural traps m the foothills. The Parkland field is in northeastern B.C. Many smaller Wabamun gas fields are present along the eroded Wabamun unconformity edge m eastern Alberta.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Wabamun Group are estimated at 102.8 x 10⁹m³ of which 53.5 x 10⁹m³ (i e. 52%) have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Wabamun gas reserves totals 260.6 x 109m3. There are a total of 338 Wabamun gas pools, with an average 304 x 106m3 recoverable gas reserves/pool. Table 2 lists the distribution of Wabamun gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2 - Size Distribution of Wabamun Gas Pools (in units of 10⁶m³)

In-Place Pool Size Class	No. of Pools	Recoverable Reserves	Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10	28	85	31
10 to 100	162	3,818	627
100 to 1000	122	25,684	5,739
1000 to 10000	21	27,168	14,515
over 10000	5	46,093	32,544
Total	338	102,848 x 10⁶m³	53,456 x 10⁶m³

Last modified: August 13, 2008