The first major oil discovery in Western Canada was made in the Woodbend Group at
Leduc in 1947, and heralded extensive exploration and further oil discoveries in
D-3 reefs of south-central Alberta. Woodbend oil production has been concentrated
along the Rimbey-Meadowbrook Reef Trend, along the Clive-Bashaw D-3 Reef Complex,
and in west-central Alberta in the Sturgeon Lake - Simonette - Windfall areas. No
oil is produced from Woodbend Group rocks m British Columbia or Saskatchewan.
There are 26 Woodbend oil fields with Initial Established Recoverable Oil Reserves
of over 1 x 106m3 (6 MMBbls). The ten largest Woodbend oil
fields, listed in order of Initial Established Recoverable oil reserves, are shown
in Table 1. Cumulative production data are updated for Alberta to the end of 1990.
Table 1 - Ten Largest Woodbend Oil Fields (in units of 106m3)
No. |
Field |
Formation |
No. of Pools |
Marketable Reserves |
In-place Volume |
Cumulative Production |
Discovery Year |
| 1 | Redwater | Leduc | 1 |
128.0 |
207.0 |
126.2 |
1948 |
| 2 | Bonnie Glen | Leduc | 1 |
84.7 |
125.0 |
80.9 |
1951 |
| 3 | Wizard Lake | Leduc | 2 |
57.8 |
67.2 |
52.1 |
1951 |
| 4 | Leduc-Woodbend | Leduc | 13 |
41.9 |
66.2 |
41.3 |
1947 |
| 5 | Golden Spike | Leduc | 3 |
30.7 |
51.3 |
28.7 |
1948 |
| 6 | Sturgeon Lake S | Leduc | 5 |
28.5 |
51.5 |
23.4 |
1953 |
| 7 | Westerose | Leduc | 1 |
23.3 |
31.0 |
21.7 |
1952 |
| 8 | Acheson | Leduc | 1 |
20.9 |
29.7 |
20.2 |
1950 |
| 9 | Innisfail | Leduc | 1 |
12.8 |
19.7 |
12.4 |
1957 |
| 10 | Clive | Leduc | 1 |
7.0 |
13.4 |
5.8 |
1952 |
All of these ten largest Woodbend oil fields occur m D-3 reefs of south central Alberta.
Note that most of these fields are close to depletion, reflecting the fact that they
were discovered over 40 years ago. All oil fields of Woodbend age contain light to
medium gravity oil.
Total recoverable oil reserves m the Woodbend are estimated at 491 x 106m3,
of which 460 x 106m3 (i.e. over 93%) have already been produced.
Initial Established In-Place Volume of Woodbend oil reserves totals 818 x 106m3.
There are 161 Woodbend oil pools, with average recoverable oil reserves of 3054 x
103m3/pool.
Table 2 lists the distribution of Woodbend oil reserves according to In-Place Pool
Size.
Table 2 - Size Distribution of Woodbend Oil Pools (in units of 106m3)
In-Place Pool Size Class |
No. of Pools |
Recoverable Reserves |
Cumulative Production |
| less than 0.1 | 18 |
0.10 |
0.05 |
| 0.1 to 1 | 100 |
8.67 |
5.56 |
| 1.0 to 10 | 29 |
36.26 |
31.43 |
| 10.0 to 100 | 12 |
233.92 |
215.67 |
| over 100 | 2 |
212.70 |
207.10 |
| Total | 161 |
491.66 x 106m3 |
459.81 x 106m3 |
Last modified: August 12, 2008
