Gas Production from the Banff/Bakken

Gas production from the Banff/Bakken primarily occurs along the Banff wedge edge in south central Alberta, and in the Bakken sandstone of eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan. Local smaller Banff gas fields are also present in northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia There are three Banff/Bakken gas fields with Initial Established Marketable Gas Reserves of over 1000 x 10⁶m³ (35 BCF). These three largest Banff/Bakken gas fields, listed in order of Initial Established Marketable gas reserves, are shown in Table 1. Cumulative production data for Alberta are updated to the end of 1990 and for Saskatchewan to the end of 1989.

Table 1. Three Largest Banff/Bakken Gas Fields (in units of 10⁶m³).

Initial Established

No.	Field	Stratigraphic Unit	No. of Pools	Marketable Reserves	In-place Volume	Cumulative Production	Discovery Year
	Cherhill	Banff	14	2,249	4,286	522	1966
	Esther	Banff/Bakken	14	1,443	1,892	951	1957
	Pembina	Banff	14	1,173	1,729	230	1960

The Cherhill and Pembina Banff gas fields occur as stratigraphic traps along the Banff wedge Edge in central Alberta. The Esther field is located in eastern Alberta in the Bakken sandstone along the wedge edge.

Total recoverable gas reserves in the Banff/Bakken are comparatively small, and are estimated at 19.1 x 10⁹m³, of which 5.4 x 10⁹m³ have already been produced. Initial Established In-Place Volume of Banff/Bakken gas reserves totals 29.1 x 10⁹m³. There are 266 Banff/Bakken gas pools, with an average 72 x 10⁶m³ recoverable gas reserves/pool. Table 2 lists the distribution of Banff/Bakken gas reserves according to In-Place Pool Size.

Table 2. Size Distribution of Banff/Bakken Gas Pools (in units of 10⁶m³).

In-Place Pool Size Class	No. of Pools	Recoverable Reserves	Cumulative Production
1.0 to 10	25	86	21
10 to 100	158	4,385	826
100 to 1000	83	14,585	4,548
1000 to 10000	-	-	-
over 10000	-	-	-
Total	266	19,056 x 106m3	5,395 x 106m3

 

 

Last modified: August 14, 2008