Overview

The Triassic Charlie Lake Formation in West Central Alberta is characterized by thin reservoir zones which are generally comprised of porous laminated dolomites and/or thin dolomitic sandstone.  The principle trapping mechanism in the study area is stratigraphic, with the majority of these stratigraphic traps unconformity related.  The stratigraphic complexities observed are the result of three intra-Charlie Lake unconformity surfaces and the overall effect is the removal of section towards the east with the convergence of the unconformities near the eastern Charlie Lake subcrop edge.

Two main factors necessary for the successful exploration the Charlie Lake Formation are a firm grasp of the inter-relationships of the multiple unconformities within the section, coupled with a knowledge of the relationship between the facies and porosity development.

The study area is located in West Central Alberta from Township 67 to 85 between Ranges 1W6 and 13W6.  Within the study area a regional database of 1600 wells were selected from over 2900 wells that penetrated the Charlie Lake Formation, and  core from 249 wells (over 3000 metres) were described and interpreted at the AEUB Core Research Centre.

Click globe for map of study area.

The study area covers 220 townships (19,400 square kilometres):

• fully illustrated text (70 pages) documenting stratigraphy, depositional setting, source rock geochemistry, play types & exploration potential, core descriptions, and database;
• 9 regional and 8 field cross sections;
• 10 maps showing isopach, structure, and hydrocarbon potential at 1:100,000 & 1:250,000 scales;
• 21 stratigraphic picks and isopach values from Base Nordegg Fm. to Top Montney Fm., including, Baldonnel Fm., Charlie Lake Fm. (Worsley, Upper, Boundary & Lower Mbrs.), Halfway Fm., Doig Fm., and Montney Fm.;
• 1600 well database available in digital and hardcopy formats;
• 249 core descriptions (3,000 metres) with internally consistent correlations;
• high-graded play-types (regional up-dip erosional pinchout, erosional inliers, erosional outliers, structural).