Sunset Prairie Formation
Pacific Canbriam Energy
This year I was one of three lucky students who had the opportunity to work with Pacific Canbriam Energy.
I was taken under the mentorship of the subsurface team that taught me the steps in researching a specific land and formation, creating maps that can tell the properties of the formation, different geological skill sets such as petrophysics, and showed me how to work collaboratively in the work environment.
Pt.1-Research
During this project, I studied the Sunset Prairie formation (SSPR).
This unit of rock is situated in North East British Columbia.
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New evidence such as grain composition, fossils/trace fossils and lateral distribution of the sediments were factors that were taken into consideration in naming this unit as a new formation.
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The SSPR formation is situated in between the Montney formation and the Doig formation, and was previously known as the Anisian wedge, s it was deposited in the Anisian within the Middle Triassic (~245ma)
Within this formation, I focused on and around the Pacific Canbriam land base within North East BC.
The image highlights my study area at the time of deposition (247ma) and what the North American Craton looked like at the time.
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Through looking at multiple type wells and their core within my study area, I was able to interpret the depositional environment in the Ground birch area to vary from distal marine to a lower shoreface environment.
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Core within this interval show several different facies, that were identified by composition, grain size, trace fossils, and bioturbation intensity
Pt.2-Core
The next step of my project was to log core from multiple wells within the study to mark facies boundaries and choose official tops based on rock properties within the SSPR.
Through analyzing multiple wells, seven facies were chosen which spanned from deep marine to upper shoreface environment.
These facies were separated based on grain size, energy, composition of sediments, bioturbation intensity, as well as the presence of certain ichnofacies/trace fossils.
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logging these cores was crucial to understanding the depositional environment, relative porosity, erosional boundaries between the Montney, Sunset Prarie, and the Doig formations, as well as general thickness in certain areas.
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Pt.3-Mapping
The next step of my project was to analyze the available wells within the study area to see if there is SSPR found within these wells.
With these picks, I was also able to make cross-sections throughout 800 wells!
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These picks and cross-sections gave me the right information to then create isopach maps, porosity maps, and net reservoir maps for the subsurface team
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All these steps are critical for exploring new formations and deciphering if a certain area is economic to drill.
Pt.4-Geosteering
One of the final steps in finishing off this student project was geosteering a nearby drilled well that passed through the SSPR formation.
This gave me the experience to also work with StarSteer!
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This part of the project is crucial for a geologist to learn and present their findings.
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The upcoming world of horizontal drilling needs new geologists like me to help geosteer them in the right direction where they can produce the most amount of money in the quickest and safest way possible.
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Steering a nearby well gave me more experience in petrophysical interpretation, new software, and the importance of finding how the formation and well produced and in what way it was completed.​
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Pt.5-Production & Completions
Every well is completed a little differently, and it is the job of the subsurface team to check what methods the company that drilled the well used, such as:
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- How long was the lateral
- Number of frac stages
- Frac spacing
- Total fluid pumped
- Tonnage of sand
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All these factors are extremely important to take into account. Just because a well drilled in 2012 may not produce as well as a well drilled in the same area in 2024. This is highly based on the science advancing to a point where wells can be drilled much longer, fracking has become much more advanced, and many more factors.
Pt.6-Presenting
This whole project has led up to a final presentation that I delivered to a team of geologists, geophysicists, engineers, executives, and even the president of the company.
This presentation gave me the chance to learn how to put the last 4 months of work into a 1-hour summary, highlighting maps, structural features, rock type, drilling, and other key findings.
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The summer of 2024 was one of the best summers of my life, where I had the opportunity to put my schooling into practice, learn much more about the industry than I could have ever imagined, as well as make many friends along the way.