Regional Characterization of Shale Gas and Shale Oil Potential (A. Jones)

NTGO commissioned Dr. Brad Hayes of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. of Calgary to undertake a regional-scale study of the unconventional shale gas and shale oil potential of the southern and central Northwest Territories. His report assembles available outcrop and subsurface data to systematically assess shale gas and oil potential and is available as NWT Open File 2011-08.

The work follows on an earlier unconventional natural gas scoping study for the NWT also authored by Dr. Hayes (NWT Open File 2010-03; detailed below).

Dr. Hayes will be describing his recent NWT research at a Technical Luncheon hosted by the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas in Calgary on September 14, 2011 (www.csug.ca).

Two study areas, based on stratigraphy and well control density, are defined: the southern Liard – Great Slave study area, and the northern Peel – Mackenzie study area. In Liard – Great Slave, good shale gas and oil potential is seen in the Devonian Muskwa-Horn River formations, Devonian/Mississippian Exshaw Formation, and Cretaceous Fort St. John Group. Other thick shales, such as the Fort Simpson, Kotcho, and Banff, do not contain sufficient organic material to present attractive targets. In Peel – Mackenzie, the Devonian Horn River Group and parts of the Cretaceous Slater River Formation are prospective for shale gas and oil, while the Imperial and Arctic Red shales are organic-lean, and thus less prospective.

Base map showing southern Liard-Great Slave and northern Peel-Mackenzie study areas with distribution of wells and lines of cross-section

NWT Unconventional Natural Gas Scoping Study (A. Jones)

In response to increasing interest from industry clients, NTGO contracted Dr. Brad Hayes of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. in Calgary to conduct a scientific scoping study that provides background and preliminary information on the prospectivity of the Northwest Territories (NWT) to host unconventional natural gas like coal bed methane, tight gas, and shale gas. Unconventional gas is assuming increasing importance to the North American supply picture. Recent billion-dollar land sales and unprecedented drilling activity for shale gas in northeast British Columbia are examples of unconventional gas as an industry “game-changer.”

Broad findings of the scoping report are:

• Coal bed methane potential is very small as NWT coal beds are generally thin and unprospective for natural gas generation in economic quantities.
• Tight gas potential in the NWT is interesting but unproven. Several intervals in the subsurface need further examination.
• Shale gas potential is large but unexplored. There are several prospective geological formations throughout the NWT, including units that are continuous with those now attracting extensive industry investments in northeast British Columbia.

Almost all petroleum geoscience research in the NWT has considered oil and gas from a conventional prospective. This scoping study is the first attempt to examine unconventional gas in the Territory. The peer-reviewed scientific report was published by NTGO in April 2010 as an NWT Open File (download below) and attracted a fair amount of media interest.

Recommendations for future research include characterizing and mapping several units with shale gas potential, as well as assessing tight gas prospectivity in high-priority targets. Follow-up will focus on the research recommendations outlined in the report, namely to examine the extent of high-potential shales contained in the NWT.

Project Outputs

Hayes, B.J.R., 2011. Regional Characterization of Shale Gas and Shale Oil Potential, Northwest Territories; Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, NWT Open File 2011-08, 34 p. plus maps and cross-sections.

Hayes, B.J.R., 2010. Northwest Territories Unconventional Natural Gas Scoping Study; Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, NWT Open File 2010-03, 81 p.

Road River Group shale, Dempster Highway quarry, NWT (photo by L.P. Gal, NTGO).