Geologic, Logistic, and Economic Controls on Current Shallow Gas Production in Southwestern Saskatchewan

Christopher F. Gilboy, Dean E. G. Potter

Biogenic shallow gas is commercially produced from three Upper Cretaceous lithostratigraphic units in southwestern Saskatchewan: the second white-speckled shale, the Medicine Hat Sandstone, and the Milk River Formation. Major geologic characteristics of each of these units in the study area compare laterally with equivalent gas-producing strata in southeast Alberta (southeast Alberta Gas System) and north-central Montana (East Keith, Tiger Ridge-Bowes-Bull Hook, and Bowdoin fields).

Exploration for and, more particularly, development of shallow gas pools in southwestern Saskatchewan have greatly increased since 1982 (average number of gas wells per annum from 1960 to 1982 inclusive was 47, and from 1983 to 1987 inclusive was 460), despite a sharp decline in 1986. Logistic and economic factors influencing this pattern include current project-development methods and costs in this highly active gas play.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91033©1988 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section, Bismarck, North Dakota, 21-24 August 1988