This course is specifically designed for the explorationist working in the Devonian of Western Canada.  It emphasises controls on the geometry, distribution and  development of reservoir quality carbonate rocks  through lectures, case histories and extensive core examination of productive units.

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Lectures and core examination are designed to familiarise the participants with carbonate facies identification and interpretation.  Five full days will be spent at the ERCB Core Research Centre looking at suites of cores from all the major productive carbonate units in the basin.  These include:  Keg River reefs and banks, Muskeg evaporites/carbonates, Slave Point and Swan Hills platforms, Swan Hills and Leduc reefs, Nisku pinnacle reefs, Wabamun ramp carbonates, Pekisko downslope mounds and basinal shales of the Duvernay, Ireton and Exshaw/Banff.  Emphasis will be placed on identification of shoaling-upward cycles and their correlation.  This provides a depositional framework within which to extrapolate the distribution of reservoir-quality porosity.

The majority of production from Devonian carbonate units comes from stratigraphic traps.  However, an understanding of diagenesis is critical to evaluating the occlusion and creation of reservoir porosity.  A number of situations will be examined where diagenesis (primarily dolomitization) is the key to exploration success.

In all cases, facies interpretation from core will be related to log response.  A course notebook documenting all lecture and core material presented is included in the course fee.  For single company groups, exclusive private courses can be arranged to suit your company’s timing and stratigraphic emphasis.

Updated regularly, this highly successful course has been given to industry on both an open and private basis over 50 times.

Instructors:

The course is instructed by Frank Stoakes and Jack Wendte.  The instructors have had extensive experience in the interpretation of subsurface carbonate depositional systems.  As primarily subsurface exploration geologists, they recognise the need to present modern depositional systems as analogues to unraveling complex sedimentologic and stratigraphic relationships in the Ancient. Since participants are drawn locally, the Western Canadian Devonian will form the main data reference. The instructors are familiar with all of the major producing horizons in this stratigraphic section and have worked a large number of regional and local field studies.

Dr. Frank Stoakes has over 30 years experience of stratigraphic studies in the Western Canada Basin both at a research (regional study) and exploration level.  He was employed for 6 years by Esso Canada Resources Ltd., where he taught a number of carbonate-related courses that included 5 schools in Florida and the Bahamas.  As a consultant he continues to conduct regional studies and carbonate courses for the industry, including a modern carbonate courses to Florida / Bahamas (run on 16 previous occasions) and to Belize, Central America (run on 19 previous occasions).  All courses are available on a private and industry basis.

Course Dates:

• Nov 2 - 5, 2009

• $1,900.00 + GST