Issuu

SEPT/OCT 2021 • ISSUE 5

THE MAGAZINE OF CANADIAN ENERGY GEOSCIENTISTS

Reservoir cspg.org

In This Issue

SEPT/OCT 2021

Letter from the Editor

Message from the Board

32 RECAP - Report on the 26th of June 2021 Field Trip to Moose Mountain in the Southern Alberta Foothills

Go Take A Walk

38 Fossil Treasures

22 Go Take A Hike – Ethiopia, #6

44 From the Desk of the AER

28 The Blue View: Industry Trends through Woodmac's Lens

46 RECAP - 2021 Student Industry Field Trip

31 Report from the 2021 Core Conference Committee

Conferences

e-Talks

Page 21

Page 2

Page 12-20

Short Courses

Energy and Emerging Technology in Geoscience Symposium

Technical Division e-Talks

Page 13, 33, 43

Field Trips

Page 34-37

GeoWomen e-Talks

UPCOMING EVENTS

Education

OPAL RANGE - LEWIS THRUST SHEET, ALBERTA. As viewed looking north-northwest from Grizzly Peak, Kananaskis Country, steeply-dipping limestone strata of the Carboniferous Etherington Fm. and underlying Mount Head Fm. are carried on the Lewis Thrust. In the footwall to the right are west-dipping strata of the Jurassic Fernie Fm. (black), Triassic Whitehorse Fm. (white) and Triassic Sulphur Mountain Fm. (rusty brown). The thrust developed within the core of an anticline-syncline pair on Mount Kidd to the north. The winding road to Fortress Mountain is visible in the distance. Photo by: Jon Noad.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

FROM THE EDITOR TOM SNEDDON, PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST (ALBERTA), PROFESSIONAL GEOSCIENTIST

S This edition of the Reservoir includes an expansion of the Go Take A Hike concept to include a new geothermal Go Take a Walk article and the conclusion of Philip Benham’s six-part series from Ethiopia. The editorial staff hopes you enjoy this approach and we can expect manuscripts for your favourites for future editions.

ummer is winding down while the COVID-19 plague begins a muchattenuated 4th wave (we all hope). Kids are returning or planning to return to school, as are their teachers in Canada. I am writing this the last weekend in August in a telecommunications-deprived campground and relying on a flaky cell phone. Little kids are doing what little kids do when camping and collecting rocks for identification and a geology yarn on what they are telling us. Good fun for sure. One less than 2 year old girl showed me her personal boulder where she went every camping morning. It is a highly smoothed and polished shield rock that sparkles in the sunlight. She is definitely one of us!

This edition also includes a couple of historical pieces that lead into an excellent view into the (blue/green) crystal ball future for the Geology Profession. This triplet of articles will hopefully trigger more of the same from our most talented membership.

This edition of the Reservoir includes an expansion of the Go Take A Hike concept to include a new geothermal Go Take a Walk article and the conclusion of Philip Benham’s six-part series from Ethiopia. The editorial staff hopes you enjoy this approach and we can expect manuscripts for your favourites for future editions. Don't forget your movie clips as well as your expert photographs. We would also love to include any form of advanced graphics or sound, all to advance the art of geoscience as well as the science.

Well, that's the wrap on an outstanding edition that kicks off the Autumn of 2021 and foretells the Winter of 2021/2022. Enjoy the e-Zine and let us know what you think on how we can continue to evolve and better meet your needs. n

We also review several outstanding virtual and in-person gatherings. The virtual Core Conference, the Moose Mountain Field Trip, and the virtual Student Industry Field Trip that took place in May. We also hope to rejuvenate the Sports Page in the coming winter and spring. Don't forget your cameras, microphones and klieg lights to record the action and submit your articles to the Reservoir.

Tom Sneddon

A new article from Jon Noad looks at Fossil Treasures along with an article from AER staff on their angle on the Regulation of what we do. We also honour our outstanding members (and hopefully future members) through the Society's Awards program.

PUBLICATIONS INFORMATION The RESERVOIR is published 6 times per year by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. The purpose of the RESERVOIR is to publicize the Society’s many activities and to promote the geosciences. We look for both technical and non-technical material to publish. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the publisher. No official endorsement or sponsorship by the CSPG is implied for any advertisement, insert, or article that

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

appears in the RESERVOIR unless otherwise noted. All submitted materials are reviewed by the editor. We reserve the right to edit all submissions, including letters to the Editor. Submissions must include your name, address, and membership number (if applicable). The material contained in this publication is intended for informational use only. While reasonable care has been taken, authors and the CSPG make no guarantees that any of the equations, schematics, or devices discussed will perform as expected

or that they will give the desired results. Some information contained herein may be inaccurate or may vary from standard measurements. The CSPG expressly disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions, or conduct of any third-party user of information contained in this publication. Under no circumstances shall the CSPG and its officers, directors, employees, and agents be liable for any injury, loss, damage, or expense arising in any manner whatsoever from the acts, omissions, or conduct of any third-party user.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2021

PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT ELECT

PAST PRESIDENT

FINANCE DIRECTOR

Neil Watson

Kelty Latos

Jen Russel-Houston

Jason Frank

Enlighten Geoscience Ltd. president@cspg.org Linkedin

ConocoPhillips Canada Ltd. presidentelect@cspg.org LinkedIn

Osum Oil Sands Corp. pastpresident@cspg.org Linkedin

Athabasca Oil Corp. directorfinance@cspg.org Linkedin

FINANCE DIRECTOR ELECT

DIRECTOR

Erin Crerar

Kurt Armbruster

Mona Enachescu

Amy Fox

directorfinanceelect@cspg.org Linkedin

technicaldivisions@cspg.org Linkedin

Cavalier Energy Inc. outreach@cspg.org Linkedin

Enlighten Geoscience Ltd. education@cspg.org Linkedin

DIRECTOR

Chad Glemser

Mark Mallamo

Kiersten Mohr

Genga Nadaraju

conferences@cspg.org Linkedin

Acquisition Oil Corp. fieldtrips@cspg.org Linkedin

Terra Firma Transition publications@cspg.org LinkedIn

membershipdirector@cspg.org Linkedin

OFFICE CONTACTS MEMBERSHIP INQUIRIES Tel: 403-264-5610 Email: membership@cspg.org

CSPG OFFICE #150, 540 - 5th Ave SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 0M2 Tel: 403-264-5610 | www.cspg.org

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Emma MacPherson Tel: 403-513-1230 Email: emma.macpherson@cspg.org

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Yarina Moharam Tel: 403-513-1235 Email: yarina.moharam@cspg.org MANAGING DIRECTOR Yarina Moharam Tel: 403-513-1235 Email: yarina.moharam@cspg.org

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD NEIL WATSON, CSPG PRESIDENT

A Fine Balance: The CSPG Value Proposition and the Member Dues Why an increase in Membership dues?

W As we exit the pandemic and oil and gas prices firm up, it is appropriate to consider a dues adjustment that

e each have our own particular interests that we want to see the CSPG serve. If we are working heavy oil, we want to understand the Clearwater. If you are working on Montney assets, you want to delve into liquids distribution. A person drilling Cardium horizontals might have a somewhat esoteric interest in SAGD just as a Grosmont expert might have in the Duvernay. But, for good reason, we tend to be focused on the plays we work on. We can come together for a 10k Road Race or Squash Tournament, but we often don’t understand the panoply of just what our society puts together year upon year. It is only when you take a moment to look at the entire spectrum of the CSPG’s activities that you realize how expansive our operations are. Not just GeoConvention but world renowned events

reflects inflation.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

such as Core, Gussow and Mountjoy. Not just the Reservoir but decades of back issues of the Bulletin. Not just Technical Division talks but Luncheon talks. A fully enumerated list would take up the rest of the article. And you get the idea. The CSPG is an exemplar of a society focused on serving its members to the best of its abilities. This amazing portfolio of services is only possible through the efforts of a cadre of volunteers supported by a resourceful and talented staff. This team of dedicated and talented individuals deliver our programs at a very high-cost efficiency. And this is where we get to the stage of defining the value proposition behind membership in the CSPG.

Earlier this year, the Board and staff reviewed the cost per member of our programs and services. This analysis resulted in an estimated value of a CSPG membership of over $265/year. It is important to note that there are very few marginal costs involved in the CSPG programs. The incredible value of membership in the CSPG is selfevident. In addition to the CSPG’s lean operations, feedback from the membership indicates that the package of programs we offer to the members are well received without any obvious redundancies or superfluous offerings. The difference between the current dues of $120/ year for a Full member and the membership value is covered through a variety of sources including (projected) profit from GeoConvention, technical conferences, luncheons, royalties on publications, sponsorships (for which we are extremely grateful – thank you) and other sources. The Boards of Directors have, over recent years, found the ability to maintain this balance increasingly difficult due to decreasing membership levels and participation in conferences due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a protracted commodity price trough and concomitant depressed levels of employment for geoscientists. These challenges have resulted in the CSPG recording operating deficits over the last few years. While the Society possesses significant fiscal resources, this challenge cannot go unanswered. The Board has formulated a plan aimed at returning our operations to a “breakeven” level for 2022 and a return to profitable operations in 2023 (net of any extraordinary expenses related to the rebranding process). The steps to execute this plan are underway and are expected to soon provide the expected benefits. Part of this fiscal plan is to address the impact of inflation on our membership revenue. The last dues increase was instituted in 2017 primarily to

catchup to inflation. Inflation, while variable year over year, is an ever-present fact and the past four years are no different. What has been different has been the ability to address this loss to our financial outcomes. As we exit the pandemic and oil and gas prices firm up, it is appropriate to consider a dues adjustment that reflects inflation. As a result, the following dues structure is being implemented on September 1, 2021 to coincide with the new fiscal year:

• Full and Associate: $135/year (up from $120/year) • Recent Graduates and Emeritus: $70/year (up from $60/year) • Student: Remain exempt from dues The Board of Directors recognizes the challenge our members face in accommodating an annual lump sum dues invoice into their budgets. For this reason, we will also be providing members with the option to pay their dues in monthly installments (based on a full year commitment) of:

It is only when you take a moment to look at the entire spectrum of the CSPG’s activities that you realize how expansive our operations are.

• Full and Associate: $11.25/month • Recent Graduates and Emeritus: $5.85/ month Details of this facility will be available soon. Thank you for continued support of the CSPG. We will continue to do our best to provide the incredible value of CSPG membership. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at president@CSPG.org. n

Neil Watson

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

GO TAKE A WALK Go Take a Walk is a new series of articles brought to you by the CSPG Field Trip Committee to explore easily accessible geology at home and abroad. These articles focus on geological points of interest in cities, historical sites, museums and geological destinations a short walk from the car.

Geothermal Waters in the Canadian Rockies: The influence of geology on the birthing of our national parks By Gabrielle Abernethy

The way Canada has viewed Banff’s thermal springs has changed since 1885, when Canada’s first national park was created at Banff. At the time, a sea to sea railway was nearing completion, a track of iron and human toil to join British Columbia to the fledgling confederacy and a physical link to bring the West’s natural resources to the East. The rail passed through the Bow Valley, climbed over the Rocky mountains via the treacherous Kicking Horse Pass, and continued over the rugged Selkirk mountains through Rogers Pass. The route was shor ter, and hoped, cheaper than the easier terrain and more gentle grade of the Yellowhead Pass to the nor th. Derailments from runaway trains on steep grades (Kicking Horse Pass) and avalanches (Rogers Pass) were common frustrations until 1909, when the Spiral Tunnels, near Field, B.C., would substantially improve the grade and safety down the

SHACK BUILT BY MCCABE AND MCCARDELL "Shack built by McCabe and McCardell, Banff, Alberta.", 1883 (CU1150945) by . Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

Kicking Horse Canyon (Lester, 2005) and the completion of the Connaught Tunnel in 1916 through the roots of Mount Macdonald ended a 26 year saga of over 200 avalanche related deaths (Woods, 1981). Passing through the Bow Valley on the way to the Kicking Horse would have another, though happier, unintended outcome. In 1883, two Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) workers, Frank McCabe and William McCardell, found the outlets of several hot springs and followed them to a cave on the eastern slopes of Sulphur Mountain. Smelling money in an area where bathing in frigid glacially fed streams was de rigueur, a rustic cabin was built near the cave hole to establish residency; a rough hewn ladder allowed descent through the roof of the cavern to the warm pool below. Seeking a legal claim to their find, they

THE CAVE "The Cave', Banff, Alberta.", [ca. 1880s-1890s] (CU1100420) by Thompson, S. J.. Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary

petitioned the federal government in 1885 but by then, several competing claims for the Lower (Cave and Basin) and Upper hot springs had been made. The federal government and William Cornelius Van Horne, vice president and general manager of the CPR, were aler ted to the potential for tourism dollars that could pay for their expensive new railroad. For less than $2000 compensation to several claimants, the federal government seized ownership (Lothian, 1976). The 26 square kilometres surrounding the springs were established as the Banff Hot Springs Reser ve in November of 1885. In 1886, to fur ther protect the scenic value along the Canadian Pacific Railway route where lodges and hotels would later be constructed, mountain park reser ves were set aside in what is now Glacier National Park and Yoho National Park. In June 1887, the Banff Hot Springs Reser ve

was expanded to encompass 665 square kilometers and officially became Rocky Mountain National Park, Canada’s first national park. Later, in 1930, with the establishment of the National Parks Act, it would be renamed Banff National Park. Today, Canada has “48 national parks, 171 historic sites, 4 marine conser vation areas and 1 national urban park in Canada and the largest system of protected places in the world (Parks Canada, May 28, 2020).” At the Cave and Basin National Historic Site, “the bir thplace of Canada’s national parks,” the cultural histor y of the thermal springs includes long and significant visitation by pre-contact and historic indigenous groups. Archaeological finds in the adjacent Vermilion Wetlands date to 10,800 years (Parks Canada, October 16,

SWIMMERS AT THE CAVE AND BASIN POOL "Swimmers at the Cave and Basin pool, Banff, Alberta.", [ca. 1910] (CU1205040) by. Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary

On September 18, Steve Grasby, research scientist with the Geological Sur vey of Canada and Natural Resources Canada, will lead a day trip to several stops in the Rockies, including the Cave and Basin National Historic Site.

Having conducted extensive investigation of the thermal and mineral springs in the local mountain region, and as a government exper t on geothermal energy resource potential in Canada, his research is par t of Canada’s storied relationship to this resource. The field trip will examine “a series of spring systems along the Bow River Corridor in the Front Ranges of the Canadian Rockies and look at the role structural geology plays in the occurrence of thermal springs, and more impor tantly, the influence of fault plane geometr y on spring temperatures in a low heat flow setting (Grasby & Laundr y, 2003).” To register for the field trip, please follow the link below. REGISTER HERE

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

2020), implying First Nations use of the springs was inevitable and occurred until their ‘discover y’ by Europeans. Parks Canada (personal communication, 2019), in obser vance of this histor y, have allowed First Nations groups special access to the cave to allow for ceremony and prayer in a place that is traditionally recognized as sacred to their culture. Before the cave was closed to visitation due to Covid-19, the careful obser ver could find braided sweetgrass left in quiet, shadowed recesses within the cave where it could be left unobser ved and untouched. In the 21st centur y, Canada has evolved the way we value Banff’s thermal springs from a resource ripe for commercial development to a site with intrinsic natural, cultural and scientific value. Its scientific value would eventually attract geologists and researchers, drawn to the ‘why’ of its location and the mysterious source of its waters. n

REFERENCES Grasby, S. & Laundry, K. (2003). Hot and Cold Running Water in the Canadian Rockies: The influence of geology on the distribution, temperature, chemistry, and microbiology of thermal springs [Field trip notes]. Geological Survey of Canada. Lester, G. (2005). The Passes Through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Atlas of Alberta Railways, University of Alberta Press. https://railways.library.ualberta. ca/Chapters-14-1/ Lothian, W.F. (1976). A History of Canada’s National Parks: Volume I. Parks Canada. http://parkscanadahistory.com/publications/history/lothian/eng/vol1/ chap1.htm Parks Canada (October 16, 2020). Archaeology in Banff National Park. Banff National Park. https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/banff/culture/arch Parks Canada (May 28, 2020). Banff’s Legacy. Cave and Basin National Historic Site. https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ab/caveandbasin/culture/heritage-legacy Woods, J.G. (1981). Snow War: An illustrated history of Rogers Pass Glacier National Park, B.C. National and Provincial Parks Association of Canada. http://www.parkscanadahistory.com/publications/nppac-cpaws/snow-war.pdf

GRADUATE THESIS AWARDS ABOUT THE THESIS AWARDS Ph. D. AWARD Win $5,000, a framed certificate, and a one-year CSPG membership for the Doctoral thesis that makes the most significant contribution to Canadian sedimentary geology in 2021. M. Sc. AWARD Win $4,000, a framed certificate, and a one-year CSPG membership for the Masters thesis that makes the most significant contribution to Canadian sedimentary geology in 2021.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS Eligible theses are either produced in a Canadian university, regardless of project location, or deal with a Canadian sedimentary/petroleum geology topic, regardless of the university of origin.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS DEADLINE: SEPT 30

10 R E S E R V O I R I S S U E 5 • S E P T / O C T 2 0 2 1

PATRICIA J. LEE TRAILBLAZER AWARD

COL L AB O RATI ON

VIS IO N

BUSINESS N A M E

INNOVATION

The CSPG and it’s GeoWomen Committee is honoured to

These values are embodied in Patricia J. Lee’s cross-disci-

announce the first CSPG award named after a distinguished

plinary creativity, work ethic and perseverance that led to a 2

female geoscientist! The recognition team of the committee,

TCF Caroline (Devonian Swan Hills) gas discovery in 1986

led by Eva Drivet and Michelle Lund drove this initiative

(only 8 years after starting her career), her subsequent

forward as part of the GeoWomen’s mission to increase the

successes in the Foothills, her ascent to Chief Geoscientist of

recruitment, retention, and recognition of women in geosci-

Shell Canada and continuous engagement as a mentor.

ence. All CSPG members will be eligible for this award both as Teams or as Individuals. The award will celebrate trailblazers based on their: Innovation, Vision and Collaboration.

Visit Career Awards for more information.

B.A.S.S. TECHNICAL DIVISION

Petrophysically guided thermo-mechanical study of a clastic reservoir at the Aquistore CO2 injection site Presenter: Noga Vaisblat Authors: Noga Vaisblat and Rick Chalaturnyk E-Technical Division Talk Monday, September 27, 2021 | 12:00 PM MST

A B S T R AC T

Modeling the behaviour of the CO2 plume in the subsurface and the response of the rock mass to the injected gas requires understanding of the constitutive law of the rock (the relationship between stresses and deformation) and its affect on flow rate. Since the reservoir in the Deadwood and Winnipeg Formations is not homogeneous through its entire interval (~200 m), the constitutive law must be determined for multiple horizons. To identify the different horizons (rock types) within the Deadwood and Winnipeg Formations, a petrophysical model was developed with the software GAMLS. The model is based on downhole well-logs data and provides a regional lithological and petrophysical framework of the reservoir. The GAMLS model was validated through comparison with hyperspectral core scans and core description. The model clearly identified eight rock types in the studied interval. Six of these rock types (sandstones and mixed sandstones-siltstones) are considered reservoirs and two of the rock types are low permeability flow barriers (shale and calcareous shale). All units are spatially continuous throughout the study area. The Petrophysical model guided samples selection for routine and special core analysis and for thermo-geomechanical flow testing. Helium pycnometry and nitrogen permeability as well as simple geomechanical testing (direct shear and Brazilian tensile strength tests) confirmed the existence of several of the end members depicted by the petrophysical model. Geomechanical testing, including high pressure-high temperature Triaxial testing is ongoing and will continue with the goal of generating a constitutive law for each rock type at reservoir condition and provide information on the effect of stress and temperature on fluid flow within the Deadwood-Winnipeg reservoir.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge PTRC for their ongoing support.

12 R E S E R V O I R I S S U E 5 • S E P T / O C T 2 0 2 1

Noga Vaisblat received her BSc. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel in 2008, and an MSc. in geology from the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2011. She received her PhD in geology from the University of Alberta in 2020. Noga specializes in conventional and unconventional reservoir quality characterization through petrophysical work, diagenetic studies, and lab analyses. Since 2020 Noga has been working as a research fellow at the Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group at the Engineering department at the University of Alberta, incorporating geomechanical lab testing into her workflow.

BIOGRAPHY

he Aquistore well (3,400 m TVD) was drilled to inject CO2 into the hypersaline Deadwood and Winnipeg Formations in southeastern Saskatchewan. The response of the rock to the injected CO2 is dynamic, depends on the injection rate, the duration of injection, and the distance form the well, and include an increase in pore pressure, a decrease in effective stress, and temperature fluctuations. These thermomechanical processes are known to influence fluid flow in the reservoir, as well as cap-rock and well integrity.

ENERGY TRANSITION AND SUSTAINABILITY TECHNICAL DIVISION

Energy is Transitioning. Build the Future. Be the Hero. Presenter: Geoffrey Cann E-Technical Division Talk Thursday, September 23, 2021 | 6:30 PM MST

A B S T R AC T

Nothing could be further from the truth. There are still 1.2 billion cars on the road, 300 million heavy trucks and thousands of planes. We show almost no signs of slowing down. But change we must to halt climate impacts. There is only one tool in the kit bag that can simultaneously cut costs, boost productivity, and put the climate back on track while we shift to new energies, and that’s digital innovation. It’s the incumbents who are best positioned to define, create, and own the future world of energy. This engaging and inspiring talk lifts the oil and gas industry up from its doldrums and presents the future as a place of hope. To be the hero of the energy transition, oil and gas must swiftly embrace digital innovations to transform the sector. Audiences will be challenged to think like a digital innovator, to exploit the three laws of digital, and to break free from the challenges of change.

Geoffrey Cann is the author of Bits, Bytes, and Barrels: The Digital Transformation of Oil and Gas, a professional speaker, and a highly regarded teacher and instructor on digital innovations in energy. He is powered by a 35-year career as a consultant and advisor to some of the biggest names in oil and gas, and has carried out hundreds of business change projects across the commodity lifecycle. He publishes a weekly article on digital innovation, hosts a leading podcast called Digital Oil and Gas, and instructs the most popular course in oil and gas on Udemy, the world’s largest training platform.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

BIOGRAPHY

he oil and gas industry faces extraordinary headwinds from environmental activism, talent flight, and capital abandonment. The narrative about the industry has flipped from being an essential social product to an industrial dead end.

HEAVY OIL / OIL SANDS TECHNICAL DIVISION

Source-to-Sink Sediment Routing in an Uplifted Foreland Basin, Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group, Alberta Basin, Canada Presenter: William A. Matthews, Laboratory Manager, University of Calgary E-Technical Division Talk September 8th, 2021 | 8:00 AM MST

A B S T R AC T

The Alberta Foreland Basin of Western Canada consists of a 4 km thick wedge of sediment that records tectonic activity from 200-50 Ma. Basin initiation took place in the Jurassic with formation of an asymmetric foredeep that filled with detritus from the emerging Cordillera. Jurassic foreland strata indicates a typical foreland sediment dispersal pattern. During tectonic quiescence in the Early Cretaceous, the foreland was uplifted and a basin-wide unconformity formed, exposing increasingly older MesozoicPaleozoic sedimentary units eastward towards the craton. Aptian lower Mannville Group units directly accumulated on this unconformity. Differential erosion of subcropping units created a partitioned basin, and capture of three distinct basin-axial channel systems marked by distinct U-Pb detrital zircon age distributions. The axial drainage next to the orogen derived sediment mainly via recycling of the orogenic wedge, with input from magmatic rocks of the Cordillera. Cratonward, dissolution of subcropping salt led to topography that captured a continental-scale river system with headwaters in the south and eastern United States. During the Albian, a thick asymmetric wedge accumulated in the foreland basin, indicating that sediment dispersal was once again controlled by elevated basin subsidence and sediment supply. The distribution of accommodation and sediment routing trends during periods of uplift and erosion in a basin are difficult to predict. Environmental controls can affect the development of topography on erosional surfaces and exert a greater influence on sediment dispersal. In the Alberta Basin, foreland uplift controlled deposition of the Mannville Group, which includes vast hydrocarbon resources (e.g., Athabasca Oil Sands). A database including outcrops, 1000s of wellbores, and expansive detrital zircon analyses (N = 40; n = 5652) is used to demonstrate the impact of an uplift- induced partitioned foreland on sediment routing and reservoir distribution. This talk will discuss the results of extensive detrital zircon geochronology of the Mannville Group. These data record phases of drainage segregation and integration during an intriguing time in the evolution of the foreland basin.

14 R E S E R V O I R I S S U E 5 • S E P T / O C T 2 0 2 1

BIOGRAPHY

ediment dispersal in foreland basins is mainly controlled by tectonically induced subsidence and sediment supply. As such, many foreland basins exhibit a predictable drainage pattern where basin-axial channel systems are intersected by transverse drainages that emanate from uplifting orogens. During phases of relative tectonic quiescence, however, the foreland can isostatically rebound, complicating basin configuration, sediment routing, and propagation of environmental signals (e.g., uplift).

William obtained his B.Sc., Honours Geology, at the University of Waterloo in 2001. From there he joined the oil industry for 9 years working with ExxonMobil and a number of smaller oil and gas companies. In 2010 he started a Ph.D. at the University of Calgary with Dr. Bernard Guest using detrital zircon geochronology to constrain the assembly of the Cordilleran Orogen of western North America. During his Ph.D. he commissioned the Calgary Geo- and Thermochronology lab and went on to manage lab operations. After his Ph.D. he continued his research as a limited-term professor and then as Laboratory Manager. His current research focusses on the connections between orogensis and basin fill sequences and the timing and mechanisms of assembly of the North American Cordillera.

HEAVY OIL / OIL SANDS TECHNICAL DIVISION

Integrated Reservoir Characterization and Connectivity Measurement in Stacked Meanderbelt Deposits: The Implications for SAGD Presenter: Presenter: Siavash Nejadi E-Technical Division Talk October 6th, 2021 | 8:00 AM MST

A B S T R AC T

For modelling purposes, we mapped the internal stratigraphic architecture of different reservoir levels. Generating the three-dimensional architecture of the reservoir is based on the analysis of data collected through high-density drilling, extensive coring, and 3D seismic. We preserved depositional bedding geometries and categorized distinct fluvial meander-belt architectural elements, including point bars, counter point bars, sidebars, and abandoned channel fills, as separate zones. In the property modelling phase, distinct morphology, facies associations, petrophysical properties, and reservoir potential characterize the zones. Deterministic geobody interpretations constrain geostatistical simulations and relax the stationary assumption; it allows the spatial uncertainty to be captured adequately and improves the geological realism of the subsurface models.

This ultra-defined model provides a unique framework for field development optimization. Including depositional bedding geometries in the modelling helps reducing uncertainties in net continuous bitumen estimations. It further improves the knowledge of reservoir connectivity and compartmentalization. To evaluate the effect of depositional heterogeneities on reservoir performance, we implement detailed geological interpretations and provide a novel method for measuring connectivity. In the calculations, we account for: (1) reservoir parameters including rock types, porosity, permeability along the principal axis of flow, and oil saturation, (2) pressure and elevation (potential energy gradients), (3) the well locations, and (4) tortuosity of the fluid flow streamlines. It captures the uncertainty in reservoir rock distributions and provides a computationally efficient measurement for effective decision-making in reservoir management problems. In the SAGD examples, the technique estimates steam chamber development and conformance with high confidence, which supports planning for late-life production improvements and optimizing infill drilling locations.

BIOGRAPHY

he McMurray Formation is composed of large-scale fluvial meanderbelt deposits that are highly heterogeneous. Transgressive events with localized incisions within the McMurray Formation have led to a complex amalgam of stacked stratigraphic architectural elements. The lithological properties vary both laterally and vertically over short distances. The recovery of viscous bitumen is particularly sensitive to lithological heterogeneity. Quantifying the uncertainties in spatial rock type variations and modelling heterogeneity patterns within fluvial channel belts is crucial in oil sands reservoir characterization.

Siavash Nejadi is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Calgary and is working as a contractor for ConocoPhillips Canada. He has more than ten years of experience with geomodelling, reservoir characterization, and simulation. He has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta and University of Calgary on a series of projects aimed at optimal development of Alberta oilsand reservoirs. Siavash holds Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

HEAVY OIL / OIL SANDS TECHNICAL DIVISION

Using Biomarkers for Heavy Oil Exploration and Production 101 BIOGRAPHY

Presenter: Martin Fowler | Applied Petroleum Technology (Canada) Ltd. E-Technical Division Talk November 3rd, 2021 | 8:00 AM MST

A B S T R AC T

iomarker is shorthand for biological marker, a molecule found in the geosphere that possesses a carbon skeleton that can be related to a precursor compound that was synthesized by an organism. Hence, biomarkers can be thought of as chemical fossils. Biomarkers have many uses in oil and gas exploration, and production. These include as thermal maturation indices, for oil-oil and oil-source correlations, as well as indicators of depositional environments of their source rocks, reservoir alteration such as biodegradation, of contamination and pollution, migration, and reservoir compartmentalization and production monitoring. This presentation will briefly introduce the groups of biomarkers most commonly applied to heavy oil exploration and production problems. Almost all heavy oils are the result of microbial alteration of lighter oil, hence there will be an emphasis on the process of biodegradation and how it affects geochemical parameters, especially those based on biomarker distributions. Microbes tend to degrade compounds sequentially which has allowed the development of biodegradation scales that enable the level of microbial alteration of different samples to be compared. With increasing biodegradation, oils become more viscous, have lower API gravities, have decreasing hydrocarbon contents, richer in non- hydrocarbons and metals and hence generally have less value. Most of the talk will concentrate on the application of biomarkers to solve heavy oil production problems in Alberta, although some examples from elsewhere in the world will be included. These will include comparing the level of biodegradation between samples and how this might indicate which oils can be more easily produced, detecting mixtures of biodegraded and unbiodegraded oil and variations in source, how variations in level of biodegradation down wells can reveal the presence of baffles and reservoir compartmentalization, and how biomarkers in heavy oils can be used for production monitoring and allocation.

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Martin spent almost 25 years at the Geological Survey of Canada as a petroleum geochemist working on many multidisciplinary projects examining hydrocarbon resources in Canada and many other parts of the world. He then spent two years at Talisman. Since March 2013, he has been with Applied Petroleum Technology (Canada), as Senior Petroleum Geochemist. Martin has authored or co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers, as well as numerous government and client reports. He has been an Associated Editor for Organic Geochemistry and the Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, was an adjunct professor with the University of Calgary for twenty years and is now adjunct at Dalhousie University. He has organized or co-organized symposia for several different organizations including the CSPG and AAPG and been an instructor of short courses on Petroleum Geochemistry for the CSPG, AAPG, and petroleum companies.

OPERATIONS GEOLOGY TECHNICAL DIVISION

Directional drilling while geosteering. Key efficiency factors Speaker: Evgeniya Tyamisova September 29th, 2021 | 12:00 PM MST E-Technical Division Talk

A B S T R AC T

Cooperation protocols include emails, phone calls, messengers, and other means of communications between involved parties which in most of the cases can directly have an impact on the decision-making process. Based on our company experience of about 150 serviced wells per year, we've come up with some useful communication practices for improving synergy and achieving best KPI for both geology and drilling departments. Cloud solutions are already quite common in our daily routines. Oil and gas industry is adapting latest IT cloud technologies to enhance and bring operations to the entirely new level of efficiency.

During the talk I plan to cover basic directional drilling principles, different BHAs advantages and limitations, drilling quick projection to bit estimation, drilling parameters and how it correlates to lithology, and share some hints on ways to communicate geosteering recommendations so it is clearly understood by the drilling dept. I also want to share our way of communication leveraging cloud technologies where all the parties have access to latest MWD&LWD logs information, up to date geosteering model (estimated formation dip, wellbore stratigraphic position, distance to top/bottom of the target, % in target zone) and working well plan.

Evgeniya Tyamisova Subject Matter Expert in ROGII I hold MSc Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot Watt University and since graduation I’ve worked in drilling, both in oilfield service and rig contractor companies. My career path started as a field engineer trainee in 2006 and I’ve left operations for IT from position of dedicated Drilling Engineer for Arctic Offshore field. I've designed wells for almost every oil region in Russia. As for expertise areas my strong points are integrated project management and directional drilling. For almost 4 years I have worked in IT transformation of drilling covering the processes of data aggregation, drilling operation detection, and automatic drilling analytics. As a SME I provide consultancy and share expertise in drilling area with developers to create cloud solutions suitable for all well construction parties: geologists, drilling engineers, completion engineers, rig managers and project managers.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

BIOGRAPHY

owadays horizontal drilling is mostly done with real time geostreering when wellbore trajectory is being changed on-the-fly based on the MWD&LWD and well-to-well correlation. Although this process is quite fast but there are still some time lags in the geologist-driller communication.

PALAEONTOLOGY TECHNICAL DIVISION

Observations on the K-P (formerly K-T) mass extinction event in outcrops in Angola, Cuba, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Alberta Location: Webinar On-line Presentation or Mount Royal University Room B108 September 17, 2021 | 7:30 pm

THE AUTHOR HOLDING AN UPPER CRETACEOUS AMMONITE DISCOVERED ALONG THE ATLANTIC OCEAN COAST 50 KM NORTH OF LUANDA, ANGOLA.

A B S T R AC T

his presentation reflects the long-term interest that this author has had in the K-P (Cretaceous-Paleogene) mass extinction event, formerly known as the K-T event (Cretaceous - Tertiary), when approximately 75 percent of all living creatures on Earth died including the dinosaurs. This mass extinction resulted from a meteorite strike in the ocean off the coast of modern-day Mexico. The impact structure is called Chicxulub after a village located in the Yucatan Peninsula. An overview of the most recent publications on the Chicxulub K-P event will be presented as well as a summary of this author’s search for the K-P boundary in outcrops in Angola, Cuba, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

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Tako is Holland-born and Canada-raised with a B.Sc. in geology (1971) from the University of Alberta and a B.A in Economics (1981) from the University of Calgary. Most of his 45 years in the oil industry were with Texaco but he was also employed by Tullow Oil and Gaffney, Cline & Associates. His career included 30 years of living and working in Indonesia, Nigeria and Angola. He continues his interest in the oil and gas industry by being on the International Advisory Board of Africa Oil + Gas Report, Lagos, Nigeria and he is also on the Editorial Board of Georesources Scientific & Technical Journal, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. On the side, Tako is on the board of directors of the Calgarybased Marda Loop Justice Film Festival and he also writes monthly restaurant reviews for the Rosedale Reporter, a Calgary community newsletter. For the Alberta Paleontological Society and the public-at-large, he regularly leads paleontological field trips in downtown and inner-city Calgary, studying buildings clad by the fossils-rich Ordovician-age Tyndall Stone. For the Alberta Wilderness Association, he annually leads field trips in southern Alberta which are focused on environmental issues associated with orphan oil and gas wells and orphaned oil and gas production facilities.

Chicxulub, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico The Chicxulub meteorite impact structure, with a diameter of approximately 200 km, is the third largest such structure in the world. The strike occurred 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous. The world’s largest verified impact crater is the Vredefort crater in South Africa with a diameter of approximately 300 km. The time of the meteorite strike at Vredefort is 2.2 billion years ago in Precambrian time. The world’s second largest meteorite impact structure is the Sudbury Basin in Ontario with a diameter of 250 km resulting from a strike in the Precambrian 1.8 billion years ago.

BIOGRAPHY

Speaker: Tako Koning, Senior Geologist – Consultant

PALAEONTOLOGY TECHNICAL DIVISION The meteorite which struck at Chicxulub is estimated to have had a diameter of up to 15 km. The Vredefort meteorite is believed to have had a diameter between 10 to 15 km. Small meteorites are capable of producing craters 300 km in diameter such as Vredefort because the meteorite likely travelled at a speed of 20 kilometers per second. The meteorite would have been very dense and coupled with its high velocity, an energy-intensive explosion would have resulted with tens of cubic kilometers of rock being vaporized. Researchers believe that this explains why relatively small meteorites such as Chicxulub and Vredefort were able to produce such large craters. The Tanis K-P mass extinction site near Bowman, North Dakota, received worldwide press attention following an extensive article on the discovery made by Robert DePalma, that was published in the April 8, 2019 New Yorker magazine. Leading scientists co-authored with DePalma in a paper that came out on April 15, 2019 in the Proceedings on the National Academy of Sciences, detailing the Tanis discovery. The authors included Walter Alvarez, a geologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who along with his father, the Nobel Prize awarded physicist Luis Alvarez, pioneered the idea back in 1979 that the dinosaur extinction was the result of a cosmic impact. They were the first to recognize the significance of iridium that is found worldwide in 66 million years old sedimentary layers. The father and son team proposed that a comet or asteroid impact was responsible for both the iridium at the K-P boundary and the mass extinction. The linkage which they recognized between iridium and meteorite strikes is that iridium, which is a precious metal belonging to the platinum group of elements, is more abundant in meteorites than it is in the Earth’s terrestrial rocks. As one of the co-authors of the April 15, 2019 paper, Walter Alvarez endorsed DePalma’s discovery at Tanis. The Tanis burial site was described as an amazing geological and paleontological “snapshot” that captured the impact of the cataclysmic waves from the Chicxulub impact site which swept worldwide including northwards into North Dakota. The burial site has been reported to contain about 1.5 meters of sediments and organic remains consisting of a tangle of fossilized trees, flowers, freshwater fish, segments of dinosaurs and also marine life including parts of mosasaurs, ammonites and marine fish.

PHOTOGRAPH OF A CHAOTIC ASSEMBLAGE OF CRETACEOUSAGED FISH AT TANIS, NORTH DAKOTA. FROM DEPALMA ET AL, 2019.

DePalma et al (2019) attributed the biological and sedimentological effects at Tanis due to a “seismically coupled local seiche”, rather than due to a tsunami deposit. A thin claystone layer is also present at Tanis at the K-P boundary. This layer has a high level of iridium, shocked quartz, soot from large-scale fires, dust, ash and tektites, which are tiny spheres of clay and glass. Tektites, formed as molten rock, were ejected by the impact and subsequently showered down from the sky.

Searching for the K-P Boundary This author will review the general geology of the Bowman area and his attempts in May, 2019 to visit the Tanis site. This presentation will thereupon review the results of his searching for the K-P boundary along the coastline north of Luanda, Angola. Thereafter he will provide information about a road cut at Moncada, western Cuba where the precise K-P boundary can be viewed. The Moncada location was 500 km east of Chicxulub when the meteorite struck. The Moncada Formation is a 2.0 m thick layer which contains abundant shocked quartz, altered vesicular impact-melt fragments and a high iridium peak. Published data by Tada & Iturralde- Vinent (2002) supports the interpretation of both a tsunami and ballistic (sky fall) origin for the detritus of the Moncada Formation. Lastly to be reviewed will be the author’s search for the K-P boundary near Eastend, southwestern Saskatchewan and in the Red Deer River valley near Huxley, central Alberta.

D I V I S I O N I N F O R M AT I O N This event is presented jointly by the Alberta Palaeontological Society, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Mount Royal University, and the Palaeontology Division of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. For details or to present a talk in the future, please contact CSPG Palaeontology Division Chair Jon Noad at jonnoad@hotmail.com or APS Coordinator Harold Whittaker at 403-286-0349 or contact programs1@albertapaleo.org.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

PALAEONTOLOGY TECHNICAL DIVISION

The Use of Trace Fossils as a Tool Indicative of Age: The Case of Midwest Brazil Speaker: Dr. Hudson Pereira Santos, Geoscientist-in-training Location: Webinar On-line Presentation or Mount Royal University Room B108

A B S T R AC T

race fossils, also called ichnofossils, are fossilized traces of animal behaviours, including burrows, tracks, and trails. Trace fossils made by invertebrates have been a helpful tool for stratigraphic issues worldwide. Although their usage is considered limited due to the commonly long stratigraphic range, they have provided valuable information for the geological record in intervals of biological radiation events. One of the most important radiations recorded in the stratigraphic record is the Proterozoic- Phanerozoic transition characterized by a marked and abrupt increase in diversity and complexity of trace fossils, resulting in various substrate exploitation strategies by benthic organisms on the seafloor. During the Ediacaran, cohesive substrates (matgrounds) dominated the marine substrates, favoring softbodied preservation of animals that lived on the sediment surface and had limited mobility. Throughout time, huge anatomical design changes triggered the establishment of new behaviors by burrowing animals. Such innovations were conducive to matground obliteration and their replacement by soupy substrates homogenized by intense bioturbation (mixgrounds). Although matgrounds persisted into the Early Cambrian, animal activities within the sediment intensified, including the prevalence of suspension feeders that produced vertical dwelling traces, typically included in the Skolithos Ichnofacies, during the Cambrian Age 2. In the Midwest of Brazil, Mato Grosso State, the relative stratigraphic age and position of nearshore siliciclastic rocks of the Raizama Formation (lowermost Alto Paraguai Group), Araras-Paraguai Basin, has been debated for decades. The absence of datable volcanic or carbonate layers, body fossils, or trace fossils in these strata historically precluded the establishment of a precise age, and the rocks were assigned an Ediacaran age based on litho- and chronostratigraphic relations for this formation. Any study of rocks in this rainforest region of Brazil is complicated by extensive vegetation cover and deep weathering of surface outcrops. However, newly documented occurrences of vertical

Dr. Hudson Pereira Santos became a geoscientist in 2011 when he received his undergraduate degree from Federal University of Pará, Brazil. This was followed by a Masters degree, and in 2018, he received his PhD degree from the same University where he spent twelve years affiliated to the Sedimentary Basin Analysis of Amazonia (GSED), and where he remains an active collaborator. He then managed and operated the University’s Cathodoluminescence Laboratory as a post-doctoral researcher until he moved to Canada in 2019. Throughout these years, his research has focused on the Cambrian-Ordovician siliciclastic succession of the Alto Paraguai, which includes the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.

burrows typical of the Skolithos Ichnofacies (Skolithos linearis, Diplocraterion parallelum, and Arenicolites isp.) in these siliciclastic deposits indicate a relative age not older than early Cambrian for the Raizama Formation, solving a long-standing geological puzzle. The Raizama ichnofauna illustrates the advent of modern Phanerozoic ecology, an event often referred to as the “Agronomic Revolution”, and also yields insights into the ecology and paleogeography of Western Gondwana during the Early Cambrian.

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BIOGRAPHY

October 15, 2021 | 7:30 pm

Upcoming Fall Education September 7th Oil Reservoir Engineering For Geoscientists Instructor: Kamal Malick P. Eng.

September 8th Successful Exploitation of Heavy Oil and Oil sands Instructor: S.M. Farouq Ali

September 9th (Half Day) Introduction to Carbonates with examples from Mississippian and Devonian Core Displays Instructors: Eva Drivet and David Hills

September 9th and 10th Tight Rock Core Analysis Instructor: Christopher R. Clarkson

September 20th Gas Reservoir Engineering For Geoscientists Instructor: Kamal Malick P. Eng.

GO TAKE A HIKE – ETHIOPIA, #6

From Flood Basalts to Shield Volcano; the Simien Mountains

Philip Benham, Jiri von Drak and Enku Mulugeta

Trailhead: Most travellers fly to Gondar in northern Ethiopia and then drive 100 km to Debark to arrange for permissions for hiking and to set up with a touring company. From there it is another 16 km to the park entrance. Simien Mountains are one of the first UN World Heritages sites, designated in 1978.

Distance: Treks typically start at 3 days (~30 km, with significant elevation gain), but can last for up to a week, allowing the hardy to bag a number of peaks.

Risks: High elevation (typically >3,000 m), mountain weather and remote setting. Choose your guide wisely and be prepared for high altitude. In November 2020, northern Ethiopia became embroiled in a civil war…check reputable sources before travelling.

FIGURE 1: Map of Simien Mountains National Park. Ras Dashen, at over 4,500 m elevation, marks the highest remnant of the heavily dissected shield volcano. Common trekking routes are marked by red dashed lines. The straight white dashed line marks the approximate path of the geological cross section illustrated in Figure 5. The white arrow points north and pink towards Gondar. The red arrows identify the direction the camera was pointed for the associated photo dots. Image from: https://mayake.wordpress. com/2013/03/25/ethiopie-simien2-gb/. This site also provides useful trekking information.

elcome to the rooftop of Africa. Ethiopia contains 80% of Africa’s land above 3,000 m elevation. Most of it is in the Simien Mountains, an extensive volcanostudded plateau sitting on the western flank of the East African Rift System (EARS). The highest peak is Ras Dashen (4,543 m), a mere 150 km west of the Danakil Desert which has a (subsea) elevation of -125 m. The tremendous drop in elevation is facilitated by a series of roughly north-to-south oriented rift faults and related escarpments. The highlands were initiated in several stages. A pre-rift uplift of 1-2 km occurred during the late Eocene establishment of the Afar Plume. This was followed by syn-rift faulting, volcanism and a further uplift of approximately 2 km since 30 Ma (with most uplift after 6 Ma). The large topographic high creates an orographic barrier, resulting in heavy rainfall in the highlands from June to September, while the surrounding regions remain arid. Gani et al. (2007) note that the transition from woodland to grassland in East Africa primarily occurred about 3-4 Ma, likely driven by these rift-related highs. Further, the rise of the Ethiopian Plateau may have been the mechanism controlling hominin evolution as man’s forestdwelling ancestors adapted to the expanding African savanna.

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The foundation of the highlands consists of Precambrian crystalline basement and Mesozoic clastics and carbonates. Upon this lies the Trap Series, a 3,000 to 3,500 m-thick package of flood basalts, minor scoria, sediment and paleosols. The widespread Trap Series covers about 210,000 km2 in area, extending as far as Yemen. It dates primarily to 29-30 Ma, concurrent with the initiation of the EARS in Ethiopia. The flood basalts are likely sourced from a widespread series of riftparallel (10-50 km-long) dike swarms (Mège and Korme, 2004). This volcanic base was subsequently overlain by massive (50 km diameter) Hawaiian-style shield volcano systems, during an extended period in the Mio-Pliocene with peak activity about 18-22 Ma. Localized activity on the plateau continued into the Pleistocene and Quaternary as a number of Strombolian-style volcanoes blocked the original route of the south-flowing paleoBlue Nile. Lake Tana (Figure 2) formed behind the barrier about 5 Ma, but eventually deep cut-back fluvial erosion on the lake’s eastern shore forged a circuitous new canyon route of 500 km around the barrier. The combined uplift, faulting and rainfall in the Simiens has resulted in heavy dissection of the mountains

FIGURE 2: Map of the northern Ethiopian plateau displaying flood basalts, shield volcanoes and the radiometric ages of sampled lavas. The red dashed line marks location of cross-section in Figure 4. Black dashed line marks approximate boundary between lavas with high and low Ti (Titanium) and Rare Earth Element (REE) contents in the shield volcanoes, as related to distance from core of the Afar Plume. Note the location of Lake Tana and the circuitous route of the Blue Nile River, flowing parallel to NW-SE-oriented fault systems and then swinging around Mount Choke towards its distant confluence with the White Nile. Inset: the regional extent of the flood basalts (pale green) and plateau map location. Source: Arndt and Menzies (2005). FIGURE 3: View southeast towards Simien Mountain massif. FIGURE 4: Cross-section west to east (A-B), spanning the Ethiopian Plateau at Guguftu Shield Volcano and descending across a series of large faults marking the western boundary of the EARS and eastwards onto the floor of the Danakil Desert in the Western Afar region. The block rotation reflects accommodation space associated with rifting. Image from Corti et al. (2015).

FIGURE 5: STRATIGRAPHIC cross-section running about 50 km-northeast to southwest through the Simien shield volcano and underlying flood basalts. The section (see Figure 1) starts in the core of the Simien Massif at Bwahit and down the western flank past Debark, the starting point for many of the treks. Note the broad base of flood basalts. Prior to erosion, the Simien shield volcano could have exceeded 5,200 m elevation. In Africa today, only Mount Kilimanjaro (at nearly 5,900 m ASL) is higher. Figure from Kieffer et al., (2004). Many dots represent samples taken in their studies for mineralogy and radiometric dating. Note that the section is southeast-looking, i.e. the reverse of the north-looking Figure 4.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

and dramatic escarpments as the waters now run west into the Nile catchment basin or east to evaporate in the salt flats of the inhospitable Danakil Desert. Herodotus and other ancient luminaries puzzled over why the Nile would predictably flood in Egypt during the arid summertime, out of local seasonal cycle. They were not aware of the remote highland source at the edge of what they considered the known Earth. The predecessors of those ancients, living in the rift valley to the east would have benefited from a fairly steady water supply and set up camps along the river banks as evidenced from numerous sites in Ethiopia littered with stone tools, cut bones and campfire remains. In the Hadar region, for example, in addition to the remains of Lucy, Ethiopia claims some of the world’s oldest stone tools and cut bones at the Gona site, dating back to 2.5 Ma (Semaw et al., 2003).

Typical flood basalt provinces (such as the Deccan Traps in India and the Karoo in South Africa) consist of thick sheets of tholeiitic basalt with no compositional variation and no overlying shield volcanoes. The Simien Mountains differ not only in containing overlaying shield and Strombolian volcanoes but also demonstrate a compositional change. The Traps Series contains both tholeiitic and alkaline types of lava but the later eruptions consist entirely of alkaline lavas (Kieffer et al., 2004). As the Afar Plume evolved, the composition of the lavas has changed, reflecting differentiation of the melt source material from the lithosphere or aesthenosphere. Compositional variations in the lava are also tied to offset from the eruptive centre of the mantle plume, with Ti and REE element content decreasing with increasing distance.

FIGURE 6: Eastwards view of the Lima Limo Escarpment, with the initial phase of flood basalts overlain by the first flows of the Simien shield volcano. The fertile soils, abundant rains and moderate climate make for productive high altitude farming. Geology interpreted after Arndt and Menzies (2005).

FIGURE 7: Stratigraphic section at Lima Limo (marked on cross-section in Figure 5 and is location of Figure 6. The 1,200 m of section exposed at the escarpment includes a thick package of basalt, tuff, obsidian, and minor sediments and paleosols, creating the step-like pediment of the Trap Series. The top few hundred metres consist of thickly-layered porphyritic trachybasalts belonging to the Simien Shield Volcano. Figure adapted from Kieffer et al., (2004).

LITHOLOGY LEGEND

FIGURE 8: View north of the heavily dissected Lower Trap Series that form the volcanic base of the Simiens. The few flat areas are farmed. The photo location is just east of Sankaber Camp.

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FIGURE 9: From just east of Geech Camp en route to Imet Gogo, there is a view eastwards into the heavily eroded core of Simien Shield Volcano. The poorly defined beds dip north (outlined by dashed white line down to left) and south (down to right) on either side of the photo.

FIGURE 10: Northwards view of the escarpment, just east of Bwahit Camp. Note the well-defined layers and the classic “step” profile of the Trap Series of continental flood basalts.

FIGURE 11: Eastward view of the escarpment on the way to Sankaber Camp.

FIGURE 12: The Simiens are also famous for endemic species such as the Gelada Baboon and high altitude vegetation. The pictured giant lobelia is common above 3,000 m ASL. Photo by Rod Waddington. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ index.php?curid=29767952).

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FIGURE 13: Sunset view (west) towards Imet Gogo from viewpoint near Chenek Camp.

FIGURE 14: Scanning electron micrograph of high-Ti basalt sample from Simien Shield Volcano, showing phenocrysts of olivine (Ol) with inclusions of chrome-rich spinel, clinopyroxene (Cpx) , Ti-rich magnetite and phlogopite (Phlog, an Mg-rich end member of biotite) floating in a microcrystalline groundmass olivine, clinopyroxene, plagioclase, Fe-Ti oxides, minor phlogopite and alkali feldspars. Image from Beccaluva et al. (2009).

This is the final article on the Ethiopia Rift Valley Series focusing on the rifting, volcanism and salt deposits of the Danakil Desert, all driven by tectonics of the Afar Triple Rift Junction. All photos in this article are by Jiri von Drak unless otherwise noted. The reader is encouraged to contact the lead author (Philip.Benham@shell.com) if you have ideas for other international GTAH “themed” series, or local Canadian ones for the CSPG Reservoir.

REFERENCES Arndt, N., and Menzies, M.A., 2005. The Ethiopian Large Igneous Province. Jan 2005 LIP of the Month. http://www. largeigneousprovinces.org/05jan Beccaluva, L., Bianchini, G., Natali, C. and Siena, F., 2009. Continental flood basalts and mantle plumes: a case study of the Northern Ethiopian Plateau. Journal of Petrology, 50(7): 1377-1403 Benham, P., Mulugeta, E., and Pfeiffer,T. 2020. GO TAKE A HIKE – ETHIOPIA, #1 Geology of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. CSPG Reservoir. Corti,G., 2020.. The Ethiopian rift Valley. http://146.48.95.112/index.htm . Site referenced on June 15th 2020. Corti, G., Bastow, I., Keir, D., Pagli, C., and Baker, E.,(2015). Rift-Related Morphology of the Afar Depression. 10.1007/978-94-0178026-1_15. In P. Billi (ed.), Landscapes and Landforms of Ethiopia, World Geomorphological Landscapes, Springer.

Gani, N., Gani, M., and Abdelsalam, M. (2007). "Blue Nile incision on the Ethiopian Plateau: Pulsed plateau growth, Pliocene uplift, and hominin evolution". GSA Today. 17 (9): 4. doi:10.1130/GSAT01709A.1 Bruno K., Arndt, N., Lapierre, H., Bastien, F., Bosch, D., Pecher, A., Yirgu,G., Ayalew, D., Weis, D., Jerram, D., Keller,F., and Meugniot, C., 2004. Flood and Shield Basalts from Ethiopia: Magmas from the African Superswell, Journal of Petrology, Volume 45, Issue 4, April 2004, Pages 793–834.

Ethiopia" Journal of Human Evolution. 45 (2): 169–177 Waltham T., 2010. Afar Triangle: Rift Valleys and Volcanoes over Plate Divergence. In: Migoń, P. (ed.), Geomorphological landscapes of the world. Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht: 183–190.

Mège, D., and Korme, T., 2004. Fissure eruption of flood basalts from statistical analysis of dyke fracture length. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 131. 77-92. 10.1016/ S0377-0273(03)00317-2.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Semaw, S., Rogers, M., Quade, J., Renne, P., Butler, R., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., Stout, D., Hart, W., Pickering, T., and Simpson, S., 2003. "2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones fromOGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar,

Go Take A Hike is a compendium of 83 hikes in beautiful natural areas around Alberta and Eastern BC with a focus on the geological story of the outcrops and natural processes that are encountered along the way.

Copies are available for sale through the CSPG office.

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VISIT WEBSITE

2022 GeoCalendar Call for Photos

$250 Prize for Best Photo $250 Prize for Best Sub-Category Photo “Best Fossil Photo”

How to Submit Photos can be submitted to Markus Ebner: AxiomGeology@gmail.com SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Be any landscape-oriented photo of geological interest Include a succinct geological description and location Be of a minimum resolution of 5MP, TIFF or JPEG or BMP Limited to a total of 5 photo entries per person Deadline: September 30, 2021

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

The Blue View: Industry Trends Through Woodmac's Lens NORTH AMERICA IN CONTEXT: OVERARCHING THEMES ACROSS THE INDUSTRY

1. LIABILITY MANAGEMENT –

the potential burden on the taxpayer has become a focus of the regulator, with a new framework nearing release.

2. CONSOLIDATION CONTINUES –

M&A maintains its presence, with more announced deals specifically targeting the Montney.

LEARNING 3. MACHINE LESSONS IN THE BAKKEN:

Despite industry sentiment, our recent machine learning analysis in the Bakken deepened our conviction that the play can grow to new highs.

CANADA ONSHORE:

n AER draft on liability management released

n A pair of Montney deals continue

The AER released a draft version of a new directive focused on life-cycle management of oil and gas assets. Aimed to address the increasingly scrutinised liability faced by society due to orphan wells within the province, this directive will build on Directive 067. The newly proposed licensee capability assessment (LCA) will feed into larger assessments of the licensee and determine eligibility for development. The LCA factors include:

the M&A hot streak

Tourmaline: Canada's most active acquirer added to its tally. Tourmaline further increases its already extensive position in northern Montney. After already making deals for Polar Star and Chinook plus entering a JV with Saguaro, Tourmaline will now acquire privately-held Black Swan Energy for consideration of Cdn$1.1 billion (26 million Tourmaline common shares and net debt of Cdn$350 million). Black Swan controlled 231,000 net acres in the Montney producing 50,000 boe/d. Spartan Delta: Spartan Delta announced the acquisition of Velvet Energy Ltd. for a total consideration of roughly Cdn$743 million (US$593 million). The estimated production for these assets at close will be 20,600 boe/d composed of 42% oil, 14% NGLs and 44% gas. Also included are 281,700 net acres of Montney rights across Karr, Gold Creek, Pouce Coupe and Flatrock with 2P reserves of 224.6 mmboe. The consideration equates to just over Cdn$36,000/flowing boe and Cdn$2,639 per acre. While this cannot be considered a cheap acquisition, it fits well within the range of prices we have seen for liquids-rich Montney deals. The company has clearly positioned itself as an acquirer and will be one to watch in coming months.

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• financial health • magnitude of liability and rate of closure to measure liability growth • remaining lifespan of the project and the extent to which projects will be generate funds to support current and future liabilities • compliance, management and maintenance of infrastructure and sites • any other factor the AER deems appropriate Liability has become a focal point for the industry, within Canada and on a global scale. Given the roller coaster of pricing Canada has seen over recent years, a reworking of liability management was a priority to ensure that the burden of cleaning up and abandoning wells does not fall on the tax payer. This new directive, when given a number, will build upon Directive 006 and 067. n New large scale carbon capture facility announced by Shell

Shell Canada announced plans for a new CCUS project at the Scotford complex in Alberta called Polaris. The project is set to be developed in phases, with phase 1 sequestering 750,000 tonnes of CO2 per year with ultimate capacity to sequester up to 300Mt of CO2 over its lifetime. CO2 would be injected into the Basal Cambrian Sands two kilometres below the surface. Shell's final investment decision is scheduled for 2023 with operations beginning in the mid 2020's. Shell expects the facility will require no government funding due to the carbon tax and clean fuel standard. Quest, the CCS facility already in operation, cost nearly C$1.3 billion to build, however, Shell has since stated that they "gold-plated" the project and could deliver a similar scale project for 30% less cost. Carbon capture project announcements have come in a flurry in the last month and Canada could be expanding its capacity to over 100Mtpa if all proposed projects go ahead. The timelines for the projects differ, but with the Paris Agreement commitments looming in 2030 the industry is racing to move projects forward while the government partnering discussion are live and investor sentiment is supportive.

NORTH AMERICA IN CONTEXT: n Bakken rises from the ashes: Machine learning lessons from URTEC 2021

Our base case has the Williston basin growing into 2025 before heading into terminal decline. Our conviction that there is enough highquality inventory in the basin to allow for modest growth was strengthened via a new machine learning based collaboratory paper with NOVI Labs. In this paper we derived the geologic quality of the remaining undrilled rock in the basin and bucketed that rock quality into five quintiles. The economics were derived across the five geologic quality buckets (for both the Three Forks and Bakken formations) and the quality and quantity of the remaining inventory was examined. Below are the breakevens and payback periods across the ten machine learning derived geologic quintiles (five Bakken and five Three Forks); the fifth quintile or Q5, is highest quality quintile and Q1 is the lowest. In the Woodmac base case 5,138 wells are drilled between 2021 and 2025, during which, oil production grows to 1.23 million barrels per day. While this does exhaust all 4,918 of the Q4 and Q5 locations in the both the Bakken and the Three Forks, it simultaneously reinforces our conviction that the Williston basin can grow to new peaks between now and 2026.

Bakken and Three Forks breakevens and playback periods

n U.S. operators stick to modest growth plans as the oil price response

paradigm shifts

“The relationship between price and rig activity has shifted, a clear example of this can be lifted from the majors most recent earnings calls.”

The relationship between price and rig activity has shifted, a clear example of this can be lifted from the majors most recent earnings calls. Chevron is currently operating 5 Permian rigs and plans to add 1-2 more before year-end. At this cadence, production is expected to grow from 577 kboe/d to 600 kboe/d (~4%) by the end of this year. ExxonMobil revised medium-term Permian targets downward to help improve the balance sheet. ExxonMobil is currently running 8 rigs, down from 60 rigs prior to the pandemic but drilling speed has more than doubled since then. So, although rig count has fallen by nearly 90%, lateral drilling capacity has dropped by roughly 70%. This type of capital discipline must be commended but at such an opportunistic moment of service pricing and supportive oil prices, we’re surprised activity hasn’t increased more. The chart below shows the historical relationship between price and rigs, clearly the paradigm has shifted. Over the past year, Lower 48 oil production has been remarkably flat at just under 9 million b/d (except for February’s weather-related outages). This, despite the fact that the US rig count has

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

more than doubled since bottoming last August. It is imperative to remember that even with a doubling in rigs since the lows of last August, the rig count still remains at roughly half of what it was before last year’s price crash. Not all US producers are beholden to the same capex pressure though. For more detail and analysis on how private producers fit into the equation and when we expect growth to return, please see our recently published insight, “US tight oil’s uncharacteristic response to rising prices.”. n

SCOTT NORLIN, GIT

BRANDON MYERS

Research Analyst, Upstream Canada

Senior Analyst – Lower 48 Upstream

Scott joined the Canadian Upstream Research team at Wood Mackenzie in June 2019. He is responsible for providing financial asset valuation and objective commercial analysis on company and play activity across Canada. His coverage ranges from North American large caps to junior private producers. He also covers CNRL and Cenovus for the corporate analysis team, providing high level company valuation and strategy analysis. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Scott gained comprehensive experience in exploration and development of upstream assets. Scott worked at Parex Resources on conventional assets, Devon Energy on the Jackfish oil sands project and also has field experience in unconventional plays. Scott holds a Bachelor of Geology degree with honours from the University of Calgary and is a registered Geologist in training with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta.

Brandon is a senior analyst with our Lower 48 research team. Having joined Wood Mackenzie in 2017, he has worked on the integration of subsurface data with L48 research and conducted research into every major unconventional play in the US and Canada. Prior to this, Brandon’s career included roles in both energy efficiency and the oil and gas industry. He was a founding partner of Firefli LEDs, a carbon reduction focused LED lighting company that focused on solutions for high rise towers and industrial facilities. After that he spent time as an energy analyst for Nemalux, a Canadian, heavy industry LED manufacturer that specializes in carbon and power reduction solutions for wellsite facilities. He was a conventional field geoscientist for an innovative junior oilfield optimization exploration company in Calgary through 2016 and early 2017. Brandon graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc, Specialization in Geology. Academically his focus was on the organic geochemistry of the Duvernay shale and his thesis was focused on hydrocarbon generation and expulsion modelling across Encana’s Kaybob acreage.

DISCLAIMER – THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS STATED BELOW ARE BASED ON WOOD MACKENZIE’S DATA, SOURCED FROM PUBLIC SOURCES ACROSS THE GLOBE AND OUR PROPRIETARY TOOLS SUCH AS LENS.

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Report from the 2021 Core Conference Committee Greetings everyone, This June the 2021 Digital Core Conference shed inspiration on the geoscience community showing the interesting work that has continued to flourish through the pandemic. In September when planning began for the event, we were all optimistic it would be a hybrid event. However, with constantly changing regulations we needed to adapt to the pandemic restrictions. We expanded upon last year’s digital capability by including mural poster sessions for core walk throughs. This increased the core viewing’s interactivity and consistency between presentations. Being able to zoom in to the core was almost like using a hand lens.

We cannot thank our members enough, for supporting the 2021 CSPG Digital Core Conference. There were over 200 registrants who tuned in over the two full days of presentations. It is this dedicated thirst for knowledge from our fellow geologists, geophysicists, academics and senior leaders that keeps our committee coming back year after year, striving to bring you valuable and actionable research that has become the hallmark of the CSPG Core Conference. This event has always been one of the highlight events for the CSPG, and it is what helps keep everything moving forward. It is your support each year that is pivotal in ensuring the CSPG endures the challenges our industry is facing. The conference theme this year was Breaking Barriers in a Changing World, and it was very fitting as pandemic restrictions eased and oil prices crossed over $70/bbl around the time of the conference. The success of this conference relies heavily on the strong technical content brought forward by our presenters, and we extend our thanks and admiration to all the presenters. They are true experts in their subject matter and have done tremendous research on their projects. Our presenters delivered both recorded presentations and live poster core walk throughs using software that was new

to many of them. To you: Jon Noad, Arzu Acikelli, Sarah Schultz, Bruce Hart, Brent Nassichuk, Sara Biddle, Carolyn Furlong, Carolyn Currie, Daniel Baker, Graham Spray, Peter Hill, Stan Stancliffe, Dan Kohlruss, John Lake, Peter Bauman, Cole Ross, and Jon White, we thank you for having enthusiasm in tackling the virtual stage. As well, a special congratulations to Jon Noad for taking home the inaugural Pemberton Award, in recognition of being the best overall presentation, and to Sara Biddle, for receiving the Baillie Award for best student presentation. Last, but far from least, we want to acknowledge our amazing industry partners who helped us achieve our goals and stuck with us despite the limitations that the Digital Core Conference had. Our title sponsor Tourmaline has always been a supporter of Core Conference, and their contribution for this year was critical to the success of the conference. The Alberta Energy Regulator or AER, were nothing short of brilliant in working alongside the committee and CSPG, despite the pandemic related challenges, to ensure presenters and our other industry partners Enersoft and Digitcore could access core, ensuring we had the best possible content. To our industry partners Enersoft and Digitcore, thanks to your efforts and

in-kind contributions, we ensured that all presenters had access to high quality core imaging for their presentations and core walk-throughs. Without these images and digital interfaces, we could not have hoped to replicate the true Core Conference experience. Thank you to our session sponsor Spur Petroleum, to our Digital abstract book sponsor APEGA, and to our online social event sponsors ROGII and Chinook Consulting Services. We could not have done it without you. The CSPG Core Conference has always been a labor of love for the committee who volunteers their time and expertise. We are eternally grateful to everyone who dedicated their time to this event including committee members Thomas Plumridge, Christa Williams, Lauren Eggie, Scott MacKnight, and Robert Paul. They all took on a large role in ensuring strong technical content was presented and that the days ran smoothly. The tech savvy student volunteers Daniela Becerra Rondon, Rita Fazlyeva, and Daniela Waldbott von Bassenheim were a joy to have on board this year. It was wonderful to connect with the community virtually in 2021, and hopefully in 2022 we can all meet in person again.

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

RECAP

Moose Mountain Report on the 26th of June 2021 Field Trip to Moose Mountain in the Southern Alberta Foothills. FIELD TRIPS LEADERS: Andrew C Newson B.Sc P.Geol, Moose Oils (2014) Ltd. Debbie Sanderson M.Sc P.Geol (retired)

Looking NW over Moose Dome, the lilaccoloured Rundle Group shows the outcrop pattern for the doubly plunging anticline. Red line is the 5km route along Canyon Creek. Map by McMechan, M E, GSC, Map 1865A. After many days of refining our COVID protocols and filling out forms the 2021 June CSPG Structure Group field trip got off the ground. This was only because of the hard work by the CSPG’s Yarina Moharam and our very own Structure Group Chair ,Dragan Andjelkovic and Co-Chair Valentina Vallega. All twenty-two participants showed their appreciation for the really extraordinary amount of work that went into getting the health and safety side of the field trip organised. Once we all met at 9am at the gate to the Peridia Gas plant at Moose Mountain, it became a normal Structure Group field trip. There was a good mixture of old and young CSPG members to ask questions and share in the discussions. Among the participants were members from academia, government, and industry. The overview of structure, stratigraphy and discovery history was well

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received by a group that had a strong background in oil and gas exploration. During the field trip we looked at the surface Mississippian geology and compared the lithology with the reservoirs seen in boreholes some 2000m beneath us. In addition, we gained an understanding of how the relatively simple surface geology can be compared to the multiple stacked reservoirs that contain the eight separate pools in the Moose oil and gas field. By looking at the ages of the drilling we were also able to understand how this complex field had developed over time through vertical, highly deviated and horizontal drilling.

Luckily, we went on the field trip at the beginning of the weeklong hot spell in late June 2021. The temperatures were only in the +310C range, which we could handle with the right attire and plenty of water. The field trip was undoubtably a great success and it proved that with a little hard work and fortitude it was possible to safely have a good fun educational journey through the Alberta Foothills, even in COVID. n

Eager participants swarming the Shunda Formation looking for some more restrictive facies.

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GEOWOMEN TALKS

Mapping your Future: Navigating Challenges while Creating Opportunities Professional Coach and Geophysicist September 21, 2021 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM MST E-Technical Division Talk

A B S T R AC T

his webinar is for those who feel stuck in their careers due to limited prospects: students, employed and under/unemployed geoscientists. If you’ve ever thought:

• “Do we all have to be data scientists?” • “How do I advance when I’ve been stuck in the same role for 5+years?” • “I don’t want to give up a career I love”

You are not alone. Our old model of: “Know what I want, do the work, and get the results”, no longer applies the same way. Carrie brings insights from the last year of coaching Calgary professionals in the energy sector as well as her personal journey. As a geoscientist who has both “stayed” and “left”, she identifies deeply with those who struggle to make and maintain either decision.

Carrie is a professional, internationally certified coach and an Empowerment and Career Coach at CY Coaching. Carrie helps Calgarians displaced by the disruption in oil and gas navigate change. In 2020, she joined Higher Landing as a Career Coach helping professionals get back to work or pivot to new industries. In 2021, she joined BetterUp as a leadership coach to international emerging leaders and executives. Her geophysics career started in 2002 with ExxonMobil, and she worked at Husky and Murphy Oil before working as a geophysical consultant from 2016-2019. Carrie is an avid novice skier, hiker, and cyclist for the past 20 years. She loves being outside, but has not really improved in skill in any sport, probably because she is always paying more attention to the conversation. She loves reading, dancing, her cats and is addicted to working part time since her sons were born 15 years ago. She can’t keep a surface clean of clutter to save her life, and still daydreams about what she might be when she grows up.

BIOGRAPHY

Speaker: Carrie Youzwishen, CPCC, ACC, PGeo

Critical Minerals: Endowment and future growth in three provinces A B S T R AC T Speakers: Paulina Branscombe, M.Sc., Modelling Resources Manager, Alberta Geological Survey Melinda Yurkowski, M.Sc., Assistant Chief Geologist, Saskatchewan Geological Survey Michelle Nicolas, M.Sc., Provincial Geologist and Manager, Manitoba Geological Survey October 4 | 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Mountain Time)

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lecting to return to school at any age is never an easy career choice. It means forging ahead into the unknown, learning new skills, pushing oneself outside of their comfort zones, knowledge sharing across the generations, and utilizing known skills obtained over one’s professional career to leverage learning to a whole new level. Sustainability may be THE word of the 2020s, sustainable ener Canada has identified 31 ‘critical minerals’ vital to growing its economic development as the world transitions to a low-carbon

GEOWOMEN TALKS and digitized infrastructure. These minerals will be needed for renewable energy and clean technology applications and for defence and security technologies, consumer electronics, agriculture, medical applications and critical infrastructure. Where are these minerals and how can petroleum geologists contribute to their exploration and development? Leaders from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba geological surveys will discuss their provincial endowments and their potential future growth areas. Potash, lithium, rare earth metals and helium are some of the minerals that will be highlighted. In addition, the speakers will share career journeys and challenges encountered along the way to showcase different pathways to success. The intent is to provide information, inspiration and ideas for career seekers, researchers and the energy community. Information on Canada’s Critical Minerals can be found here: Critical minerals (nrcan.gc.ca)

Melinda Yurkowski is Assistant Chief Geologist with the Geological Survey at Saskatchewan’s Ministry of the Energy and Resources. She completed her B.Sc. and her M.Sc. geology degrees at the University of Regina and has since worked in both private and public sectors, in both carbonate and clastic environments, focusing on Saskatchewan rocks. Melinda has been with the Saskatchewan Government since 1998, in both regulatory and research roles and in 2010, she took on her current role, heading up Petroleum Geology Unit at the core facility in Regina.

Michelle Nicolas is Provincial Geologist and Manager of the Manitoba Geological Survey (MGS). After receiving her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Manitoba, she became Project Manager of the Groundwater Rehabilitation Program for the Manitoba Government after the 1997 Red River flood. She joined the Petroleum Branch in 1998 as a Petroleum Geologist, then moved to the Manitoba Geological Survey (MGS) in 2007 as a Petroleum Geologist and Phanerozoic Stratigrapher, becoming Chief Geologist of Sedimentary Geoscience in 2013. She became acting Director of the MGS in 2019, before moving into her current role. Her area of expertise is in the petroleum and porespace geology and stratigraphy of Manitoba’s two Phanerozoic sedimentary basins, with experience in most of the Phanerozoic formations in the Williston Basin, including the prolific Bakken Formation, the potash-bearing Prairie Evaporite, Cretaceous shales, deep subsurface brines, and helium potential. She also works on the stratigraphy and hydrocarbon potential of the frontier Hudson Bay Basin. Michelle established and chairs the Manitoba Critical Mineral Team for the Manitoba Government, and sits on the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Critical Mineral Task Team. She is a registered Professional Geoscientist with Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba and is a Fellow of Geoscientists Canada.

In addition to her managerial role, Melinda is working on resolving the story behind the generation, migration and trapping of economic helium deposits in the province. Melinda is a registered Professional Geoscientist with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.

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BIOGRAPHIES

Paulina Branscombe is the Modelling & Resources Manager within the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) branch of the AER, leading a multidisciplinary team of geoscientists, hydrogeologists, geomodellers, geostatisticians and engineers. She completed both her undergraduate geology and graduate geology degrees at the University of Alberta. Her M.Sc. covered geochemistry and evolution of fluids involved in the dolomitization and precipitation of metals and non-metal minerals at Pine Point lead-zinc mine in the Northwest Territories. Her career started in economic geology but shifted into the oil and gas industry and then into the regulatory sector. Paulina joined BP Canada in 2006 (conventional and unconventional plays) and BP Alaska (2008-2009) (heavy oil) before joining AER in 2015. Professional interests include fluid evolution and interaction in the WCSB and regional-scale geomodelling.

GEOWOMEN TALKS

Starting a consulting business (Part 1 of 2) – Perspectives from an independent consultant and an accountant

Eva Drivet (P.Geo., M.Sc.) | Drivet Geological Consulting Ltd. (President) Rhonda Harris (CPA, CGA, B. Admin) Rhonda Harris Professional Corporation Moderator: Maureen Stonehouse (P. Geo., MBA) | Stone Consulting (Director) October 19, 2021 | 12:00 - 1:00 pm (Mountain Time)

A B S T R AC T

his presentation is the first of two offered by GeoWomen, on the topic of starting a geoscience consulting business. There are three main ways to structure a consultancy; 1) individual consultant; 2) incorporated consulting firm that offers an integrated set of skills and expertise; and 3) the hybrid model where an independent consultant affiliates with a larger consulting company on an as-needed basis to collaborate and provide specific expertise on projects. For this first session, the “individual consultant model” will be addressed, starting with a high level overview on important aspects to be considered, such as: • Your goals and vision as a consultant (short term and long term) • Your expertise and the services you would like to offer (specialist versus generalist) • Where to start? (e.g. decide on sole proprietorship versus Incorporating – pros and cons from an individual consultant perspective, setup a business bank account, get a business credit card, and GST number) • Branding and marketing (e.g. company name, website) • Your workspace and time management • Cost of running a business (e.g. APEGA professional and corporation license requirements, WCB, equipment, conferences, training, etc…) • Book keeping

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She has offered her carbonate expertise to the petroleum industry for the past 25 years, working on exploration and development projects for major to intermediate sized petroleum companies. In 2008, she founded Drivet Geological Consulting Ltd., offering her services as an independent consultant, generating opportunities within carbonate reservoirs for various companies operating in British Columbia, Alberta and the Williston Basin. Recently, her portfolio expanded with international and green energy projects. Eva has published several papers on the topic of carbonate sedimentology and diagenesis, and conducts an industry Carbonate Core Workshop with her colleague, David Hills (www. carbonates.ca).

Rhonda Harris has been providing accounting and tax services to small and medium size businesses since 1990. Her preferred area of practice is with owner managers, assisting them in pulling together the financial puzzle pieces of their professional and personal lives. Rhonda was one of the first groups of individuals in Canada to gain the Chartered Professional Planners certificate. Her interest in accounting was piqued while studying business at the University of Regina, although she took courses at the University of Toronto, York University and the University of Calgary to complete her studies. She has instructed advanced level accounting courses at SAIT in Calgary, tax courses for several real estate boards in Alberta, and has presented to various groups on taxation.

BIOGRAPHIES

Speakers:

Eva Drivet started her career in the petroleum industry in 1995 at Shell Canada, after graduating from a M.Sc. on the Devonian Leduc carbonates from Alberta, under the supervision of Dr. Mountjoy (McGill University).

GEOWOMEN TALKS

On November 16, Michelle Saquet (CEO and Founder of Athena Subsurface Ltd.) will continue the discussion, expanding on the subject of starting a consulting firm with her perspectives on how she made it happen during a pandemic. Amy Fox (Geomechanics Specialist; President and Co-founder at Enlighten Geoscience Ltd.) will moderate, and add her viewpoints to the discussion. An abstract on Michelle Saquet’s presentation will be published in the October 2021 Reservoir. GeoWomen welcomes everyone to attend.

Maureen Stonehouse is a professional geologist with 13 years of experience and a passion for rocks and the environment. She graduated from the University of Alberta in 2008 and began her career with ConocoPhillips / Cenovus where she gained expertise in the WCSB and Athabasca Oilsands. In 2018 she graduated from the University of Calgary Haskayne MBA program and in 2019 she began contract work with Sinopec. Maureen launched Stone Consulting in 2020 to shape the geologic landscape of the future. She is currently consulting for O’Chiese Energy, geoLOGIC geoxplorer, and Vermillion. Stone Consulting's mission is to flow energy from the earth to society. In her free time Maureen enjoys volunteering for the CSPG and going on outdoor adventures with her family. More information at www.stoneconsulting.info

STANLEY SLIPPER GOLD MEDAL The medal is presented annually for outstanding contributions to petroleum exploration and development either in Canada or by Canadian based petroleum geologists working internationally. Find out eligibility requirements and nomination information by visiting www.cspg.org/awards.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS DEADLINE: SEPT 30

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

BIOGRAPHY

The second half of this first presentation will be given by Chartered Public Accountant Rhonda Harris to highlight the key steps of starting a consulting business. It will start by revisiting the “sole proprietorship versus incorporating” options from a tax standpoint as well as provide an idea as to what filing requirements are for each structure. Rhonda will then discuss key considerations including charging GST, how to budget for taxes and shareholder remuneration (dividend versus payroll) for incorporated entities.

Fossil Treasures Jon Noad, Sedimental Services; University of Adelaide

I have lived in Western Canada for 15 years and never ceased to be amazed by its wonderful geology. One aspect which receives less attention is the diversity of its palaeontology, which spans billions of years and often involve fascinating back stories. The fossils described below provide the merest glimpse into this ancient world, each of them having the power to invoke images of the wide-ranging environments in which they were preserved for eternity.

Fernie discovery Back in 1947 a field crew was mapping coal outcrops for the British Columbia Geological Survey (some stories also mention the BC Geophysical Society mapping team) just outside Fernie. One of the students reported finding a “fossil truck tire” in Coal Creek, which proved to be an ammonite around 40 cm in diameter. It was incorrectly identified as Lytoceras, but a few years later GSC palaeontologist Hans Frebold described and named the fossil Titanites occidentalis after the large Jurassic ammonites from the Upper Jurassic of Dorset in the United Kingdom. A cast of this fossil can be seen in at the Courtenay Museum in Courtenay, BC. It was not until 2004 that a second specimen was discovered on Coal Mountain by a Teck exploration team. The small creek in which it is located has since been named Ammonite Creek. The new ammonite made the first specimen look very small. It was around 5 feet (or 1.4 metres) in diameter and may well be the largest outcropping ammonite in Canada. It is estimated to weigh more than 2300 kilograms. It is possible to hike to the locality, a 6.3 kilometre round trip involving a crossing of the creek and a steep ascent. The trailhead is on Coal Creek Road, some 6 kilometres outside Fernie. Caution is required as logging operations continue in the area and the magnificent fossil is (unfortunately) not protected.

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Figure 1. The Fernie ammonite with your author for scale.

Geology The locality exposes the uppermost Jurassic Morrisey Formation and patchy outcrops of the overlying Kootenay Group coal deposits. The Morrisey Formation is subdivided into:

Morrisey Formation

MEMBER

THICKNESS

DESCRIPTION

Moose Mountain Member

36 m

Fine to coarse grained, siliceous sandstone with rare muds, coals and conglomerates

Weary Ridge Member

55 m

Very fine to coarse grained, quartz chert sandstone; slightly argillaceous

The sediments were derived from newly rising mountain ranges to the west and deposited along the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway in littoral, deltaic and beach environments. Some of the mudstones may be lacustrine. The Morrisey Formation grades into the Nikanassin Formation to the north. Overall the depositional settings coarsen and shallow upwards from the underlying Fernie marine shales, through shoreface sandstone beds and up into non marine, coal bearing strata (Gibson 1985).

Figure 2. Stratigraphic column showing the age of the sediments in which the ammonites occur (Corelab Strat Chart)

The large ammonite was discovered in the uppermost sandstone bed of the Moose Mountain Sandstone on Coal Mountain. Hummocky cross-stratified sandstone beds outcrop a few metres below this bed, indicating a lower shoreface setting, while the blocky sandstone in which the ammonite is preserved is immediately overlain by coals. The overall shallowing upward succession suggests that the ammonite may have been washed up on a Jurassic beach. Picture pterosaurs flying overhead, dinosaurs browsing on the rich, coastal vegetation and waves crashing against the beach while crustaceans investigate the gigantic carcass of the Titanites. The earlier specimen was found at the top of the lowermost Kootenay sandstone bed in Ammonite Gully and, as at Coal Mountain, featured a coal seam immediately atop the sandstone.

Figure 4. Hummocky cross-stratification around 10 m stratigraphically below the ammonite location.

Figure 5. Field sketch of outcrop in Figure 4, showing the hummocks and swales.

Figure 6. Wave ripples preserved on a bedding plane in the Moose Mountain Member.

Figure 3. View of the bed in which the ammonite is preserved. There is some evidence of (poorly preserved) hummocky cross-stratification, which could suggest deposition in the lower shoreface.

Figure 7. Titanites specimen from the Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK (pencil for scale)

Dating and Naming The two Fernie ammonites are classified as part of the Dorsoplanitidae family. The genus was named Titanites after the huge ammonites of the Portland Limestone of Dorset. These regularly reach 1.5 metres or more in diameter. While usually described as Titanites giganteus (a wonderful title for these gargantuan fossils), those ammonites from the Portland Freestone are Titanites anguiformis (Wimbledon and Cope 1978), which has finer ribbing. Our Fernie ammonites have very much coarser ribs, similar to those of the (much smaller) ammonite Pavlovia pavlovia, and hence it is recommended that the genus be revised. Size is not enough to suggest that these ammonites are members of the same Titanites genus. What is also dubious geologically is that the Moose Mountain Sandstone was dated to the uppermost Jurassic based on the presence of “similar” large ammonites to the UK Titanites. Fortunately, the regional correlation supports this interpretation.

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You can add an extra stop to a visit to Ammonite Creek by continuing along the road for a couple more kilometres and visiting the Matheson Falls, which are both picturesque and geologically interesting.

L’Escargot The second outcrop is located along the TransCanada Highway, just past the Vermilion Lakes/Rundle lookout heading West. Despite its proximity to Calgary, it is extremely unlikely that more than a handful of geologists have ever seen this extraordinary outcrop. The reason is that it is located on the sixth and last pitch of a bolted, challenging climb on the west face of Mount Norquay. The rock quality is excellent, comprising Banff Limestone, and the climb is around 900 feet of grade 5.6 to 5.7 climbing. It was first ascended in 1980 and is considered as a classic climb, mostly involving following two large right facing corners. I should point out that I have not ascended this climb in person.

Figure 8. The nearby Matheson Falls, with thicker sandstone beds interbedded with thin mudstone beds. Figure 9. Trough cross-bedded sandstone exposed close to the Falls, interpreted as upper shoreface deposits.

Figure 10. View of the climbing route at Mount Norquay (photo by Leigh-Ann Webster)

Snails please?

Figure 11. View of the gastropods and nautiloids (photo by Phil Tomlinson)

So why should geoscientists be particularly interested in this route? The excitement comes on the last pitch, where hundreds of fossil gastropods (and what appear to be well preserved nautiloids) have weathered out on a vertically dipping bedding plain. This explains why the climb is called L’Escargot, the French for “the snail”. These sediments were originally deposited near ancient coral reefs on a (regionally) extensive carbonate platform, in a tropical climate. I imagine giant dragonflies crossing the waves, picking off smaller insects, while beds of crinoids swayed in the current, and gastropods browsed on reefal debris. My interpretation is that the fossils were originally blanketed in mudstone on the seabed, which has since eroded away, leaving the beautifully exposed Mississippian age fossils. Later the sediments were subjected to mountain building (an orogeny) that thrusted the limestone beds one over another and folded them into subvertical beds. The Laramide orogeny dates back to around 90 to 55 million years ago and was caused by a number of tectonic plates sliding under the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. These have been extensively eroded since the initial period of uplift.

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Figure 12. View of Helen Lake with the escarpment to the right and Cirque Peak behind.

Helen Lake, Alberta Our third palaeontological treasure was featured in the Go Take a Hike series. Last week I followed the directions (detailed in the CSPG publication of the same name) to find what must be one of the world’s greatest outcrop of ancient stromatolites. The trailhead is located opposite the Crowfoot Glacier on the Icefields Parkway, although the “foot” was barely visible in the wildfire smoke. We hiked up to Helen Lake and then followed a winding path up the escarpment on the plateau below Cirque Peak. The outcropping sediments are part of the Middle Cambrian Pika Formation, named for Pika Peak near Lake Louise. The Formation overlies the Eldon Formation and is overlain in turn by the continental Arctomys Formation. It consists primarily of dark-weathering, thin-bedded calcareous mudstone with thin dolomitized partings. The upper portion of the Formation appears to be carbonate dominated, and at the top of this interval is a well developed bed of stromatolites. These are layered accretionary structures formed in shallow water by thin films of cyanobacteria. The sticky algae traps sedimentary grains, gradually accumulating matter over time leading to upward growth.

Figure 13. Cross-sections through the stromatolites

Figure 15. Domal structures

Figure 16. Living stromatolites in Hamelin Pools (scanned 35 mm slide)

Figure 14. Domal stromatolite field.

You first encounter a few weathered dome shaped examples, but tracking northward a field of exposed, in situ domes is exposed. The domes are elongated in shape suggesting a tidal influence, and with a little imagination you can picture yourself in Hamelin Pools in Shark Bay, Western Australia, where the world’s best living stromatolites can be viewed. Obviously, there were some differences back in the Cambrian, with 400 days in a year (the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing) and plentiful oxygen. The absence of molluscan grazers allowed the stromatolites to grow almost unimpeded, and their fossils can be viewed in cross-section and plan views.

Figure 17. My favourite beer cooler from Hamelin Pools

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

Figure 18. View of Ferry Crossing

Adventures in Ferry Crossing Our final fossil locality occurs in eastern Alberta. Ferry Crossing exposes the Campanian Oldman Formation in a series of badlands along the banks of the South Saskatchewan River. The deposits are terrestrial and include channel deposits, palaeosols, overbank mudstones, crevasse splays and pond deposits. A crevasse splay is a sedimentary fluvial deposit which forms when a stream breaks its natural or artificial levees and deposits sediment on a floodplain. In some cases. this outwash gathers and carries animal remains from the plains and deposits them as a microvertebrate accumulation. The resulting fossils may include bones, teeth, claws, fish scales and more, and studying them provides excellent data on the fauna that inhabited this area around 76 million years ago.

Figure 19. My daughter on the hunt for treasures. The fossil bearing outcrop is behind her. My daughter and I recently spent some time in eastern Alberta searching for fossils. She designed an ingenious belt mounted bucket arrangement for collecting specimens which came in very useful. We spent a long (and very warm) afternoon examining an interpreted flood deposit, consisting of mudstone and siltstone. The sediments weather away at an estimated rate of around 4 cm a year, which continually exposes new fossils. We were lucky enough to find teeth from at least four different types of dinosaur, as well as fish, turtle and crocodile material. The most common elements are rolled nubs of hadrosaur teeth, which have been worn down in river channels before eventually finding their way into the microvertebrate site. These were the impalas of the Cretaceous, abundant plant eaters who shed worn teeth throughout their lives, so much more efficient than the two sets that a mammal has to make do with. Our best find by far, made by my young compadre, was a beautifully preserved (juvenile) ornithomimid claw, which we will be reporting to the Royal Tyrrell Museum (see below). Some background knowledge, coupled with our finds, allowed us to paint a picture of the Cretaceous - a humid, coastal realm, insects buzzing, birds flying and herds of hadrosaurs browsing on the abundant vegetation, exhibiting every shade of green under the sun. The climate is very warm and soupy.

Figure 20. The results of a great afternoon of fossil hunting

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Crocodiles bask on sandbars in the rivers, half heartedly snapping at passing garfish, and the occasional distant crash of branches draws the attention of every animal, fearing the passage of a therapod like Daspletosaurus. Our ornithomimid uses its claws to catch an iridescent lizard, before being caught up with many other dinosaurs in a storm surge. Soon the only evidence of their presence is a low relief mound, swiftly covered by fine grained sediment.

Summary Western Canada exposes a huge range of sediments in terms of both age and depositional settings. These host diverse fossils (and trace fossils) which allow us to piece together the ancient world. The fossils have so much to tell us about environment, climate, ecology and more. So next time you are outside, see what you can turn up, and then let your imagination begin to paint a picture of the past. One thing to note is always to remember the laws relating to fossil hunting (see below).

Fossil hunting and the law If you discover a fossil, there are laws that govern whether you can collect it, and these vary from province to province. In Alberta, the Royal Tyrrell Museum recommends photographing it, locating it (ideally using the GPS app on your phone) and leaving it buried, as it is illegal to excavate fossils in Alberta. If it is lying on the surface, it may be collected on provincial Crown land, and on private land with the landowner's permission. If you live in Alberta and legally surface collect a fossil, you may keep it as its custodian, but ownership remains with the Province of Alberta. Finds should be reported to Dr. Lorna O’Brien, Head Technician at the Museum (tyrrell.fossilreport@gov.ab.ca). British Columbia has no restrictions for general collecting, but it is important that you don't try to collect fossils from provincial or national parks or from someone's private property. You should restrict collecting to fossils that are relatively abundant and that

occur on crown land. Any finds of especial interest should be reported to the BC Fossil Management Office, Royal BC Museum or local museum. You are considered the custodian, rather than the owner, of any fossil discoveries. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the law states that heritage objects (which include fossils) cannot be altered or removed, suggesting that fossil collecting is not legal in these provinces. Further information on the legality of fossil collecting across Canada can be found on the following website: http://www. thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/55785-fossil-collecting-incanada-various- regulations/ n References available upon request Trail details on www.alltrails.com

Jon Noad An experienced geologist having worked in mining, marine geology and for the last 23 years in oil and gas, Jon now runs his own consultancy, Sedimental Services, taking on oil and gas related projects, core logging, site investigations and a variety of training for both industry and academia. His Virtual Field Trips (VFT!) are proving extremely popular in these challenging times. VISIT WEBSITE

RESERVOIR ISSUE 5 • SEPT/OCT 2021

From the Desk of the AER Mauricio Canales, Virginia Stern, and Todd Shipman

Regulating induced seismicity in Alberta On April 20, 2021, the AER released a bulletin to invite public feedback on a draft of our new water conservation policy Manual for upstream oil and gas operations. The Manual provides guidance to all oil and gas operations that submit Water Act applications for hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, thermal in situ or oil sands mining water allocations.

Certain industrial operations can alter the subsurface state of stress to activate faults prone to slip, resulting in an induced seismic event. Although uncommon, operations like hydraulic fracturing, waste-water disposal, or even hydrocarbon extraction can induce earthquakes, but only in susceptible areas where specific geological conditions for fault activation are present. The province of Alberta has experienced incidents of induced seismicity that date back to the mid-1970s, like the seismic cluster in the Strachan Field near Rocky Mountain House that was associated with gas extraction. Another remarkable case is the cluster observed near the Cordel Field in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which has been linked to waste-water disposal activities. In both cases, earthquakes as large as magnitude M>4 were recorded. Induced events related to the recent development of shale plays, however, have increased the seismic hazard in areas with otherwise low natural seismic activity. To address these issues, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has implemented multiple measures to reduce the seismic hazard associated with oil and gas activities. These include required monitoring of seismic activity near the wellbore, pre-hazard assessment of the subsurface, setbacks from fragile critical infrastructure such as dams, a response plan, and establishing earthquake magnitude thresholds that require responses. The current regulatory treatments include Subsurface Orders (SSO) near the town of Fox Creek (SSO No. 2), the Brazeau Dam (SSO No. 6), and the Dickson Dam-Red Deer area (SSO No. 7). Details include: 1. In February 2015, the AER developed the first Subsurface Order (SSO No. 2) to address increasing hazard from induced seismicity associated with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in the Duvernay Formation., near Fox Creek. Under SSO No. 2, operators performing hydraulic fracturing in the Duvernay Formation. are required to monitor seismicity near their wellbore during operations and follow the traffic light protocol (TLP). Under the TLP, operators must inform the regulator of any event larger than M> 2 (yellow-light) and actively implement mitigation

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strategies to avoid larger events. If an event M> 4 occurs (redlight), the operator must cease operations immediately. 2. SSO No. 6 defines two areas surrounding the Brazeau Dam: (1) an area within 5 km of the Brazeau Dam where hydraulic fracturing targeting the Duvernay Formation. or below is not allowed, and (2) an area within 3 km of the Brazeau Dam where no hydraulic fracturing activity is allowed. SSO No. 6 also requires the operators to follow a TLP in the first area, with events M>1.0 as the yellow-light threshold and events M>2.5 as the red-light threshold. 3. SSO No. 7 does not allow hydraulic fracturing activities within 5 km of the Dickson Dam if the stimulation is performed in the Duvernay Formation. or below. As in SSO No. 6, hydraulic fracturing is significantly limited around critical facilities , like the Dickson Dam, in order to reduce any seismic hazard. SSO No. 6 also requires the operators to follow a TLP, with events M>1.0 as the yellow-light threshold and events M>3.0 as the red-light threshold. The objective of the TLP is to provide the opportunity to mitigate seismic hazard risk through operational adjustments, this is why a yellow light is provided. All mitigation starts with a well-developed plan and robust understanding of the subsurface hazards. Although magnitude thresholds and traffic lights seem to be the focus of these approaches, the pre-treatment hazard assessment and response plans are the most functional aspects of the subsurface orders. Much like any emergency response plan, the awareness and thought put into preparation are marks of success. Monitoring is a feedback mechanism for operators to define their appropriate responses. The thresholds are set for the region as acceptable boundaries of seismic activity, without any substantial impact. To support the regulatory efforts regarding induced seismic cases from the energy sector, the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS), a division within the AER’s Operations Branch, operates a seismological network with the purpose of monitoring and analyzing

the earthquakes in the province. The AGS deployed its first seismic station in 2013 and seven in 2014, forming the backbone of the Regional Alberta Observatory for Earthquake Studies Network (RAVEN). The AGS monitoring capacity given by RAVEN currently consists of 18 seismic stations across the province. The AGS has also established partnerships with other organizations to improve the seismic monitoring within the province, receiving data from at least eight seismic monitoring networks.

AER traffic light protocol for Subsurface Orders follows this workflow for regulatory outcomes.

The data acquired by these stations is processed and analyzed by a group of subject matter experts and reported in an earthquake catalog for the province. The AGS earthquake catalog is publicly available through the Alberta Earthquake Dashboard: https:// ags-aer.shinyapps.io/Seismicity_waveform_app/. The seismic monitoring at the AGS goes beyond the supervision required to verify the subsurface orders' compliance from the operators. At the AGS, we analyze the historical and emerging seismicity cases in Alberta and determine their natural or anthropogenic origin. We also conduct studies related to the seismic hazard posed by natural and induced seismicity, as well as evaluate strategies to better handle the seismic risk from natural and energy sectorinduced earthquakes. Since the implementation of the subsurface orders there have been encouraging signs that the seismic hazard has been reduced in these key areas. For example, since January 2016, there have not been any red-light events in the SSO No. 2 area even though hydraulic fracturing activities and production from the Duvernay Fm. have increased. At the AER, we continue to improve our seismic monitoring capacity to ensure compliance with the subsurface orders with the aim to reduce the risk of seismic hazards. As a regulatory institution striving for excellence, we continuously analyze past and recent seismic events in the province in order to develop better strategies that guarantee a responsible and safe development of the energy resources in Alberta.

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RECAP

SIFT

2021 Student Industry Field Trip By: Scott Norlin and Jenn Martin

The student industry field trip (SIFT) was first run in 1977 as a and exploit the complex play in the area. For many individuals, means to introduce geology students from across Canada to the this is the first time that they have ever had to interpret a well Canadian petroleum industry. For over 40 years students have log! They are not only forced to use their geological skills to map been given a jam-packed, two-week crash course on the role of an and correlate the pay intervals, but must also navigate their way oil and gas geologist. Unfortunately, in 2020 due to the pandemic through land sales, drilling and recompleting wells, and swap/farm we were forced to cancel the trip for the first time ever. Our 2021 in deals with other companies. This year, we found a third party who trip encompassed a combination of second-, third-, fourth year offered something similar, so we were able to put together teams students, and even a couple of graduate students, with a variety of students to finish an exploration game in a fictional basin all of of geologic backgrounds: soft rock, hard rock, hydrogeology, which was completed in a single day. The patience and dedication geological engineering, and even of all of the students this year was geophysics. While we had hoped incredible. After spending a year in to be able to see everyone in university on zoom lectures, all of person, we decided to plan for a the students remained engaged For many of the students it is their first time virtual SIFT for 2021 to ensure we and even started their own social gaining a “real world” outlook on their potential would not go another May without group to get to know one another, a SIFT trip. which is one of the key aspects future career, and the opportunity to network, ask of SIFT. questions, gain industry contacts and meet each SIFT 2021 was unique in that we had to reinvent the wheel a SIFT would also like to thank other is invaluable. little bit. While the lectures and the financial support received this content were very similar, we had to year from the CSPG Foundation. overcome the challenge of turning One of the CSPG Foundation’s the 4-day field trip through the primary goals is to support Rocky Mountains into something that could be presented virtually. outreach programs that help to advance and raise awareness of Thanks to our amazing and dedicated volunteers, we were able to geoscience in the petroleum industry. jam four full field trip days into a single, ultimate day of geoscience Hearing what the students were able to take away from the trip knowledge. Utilizing videos, diagrams, photos and the expertise of is always rewarding. Through participating in SIFT, some students our leaders, the students took a virtual trip through the Bow Valley, change their outlook on a career in the energy industry while down the Rocky Mountain Trench and back to Calgary cutting others may change what courses they plan to take in future years. through millions of years of strata and geologic formations. For many of the students it is their first time gaining a “real world” Another key component we had to be creative on was the Exploration outlook on their potential future career, and the opportunity to Game. Typically, the SIFT students are teamed up to form their network, ask questions, gain industry contacts and meet each own oil and gas exploration companies and tackle the Exploration other is invaluable. Game. Throughout the game they use real well data to explore

Both of us would like to extend a huge thank you to the SIFT committee without whose dedication SIFT could not run. We would also like to give a tremendous hand to the staff at the CSPG office and the CSPG Foundation who supported us from the get-go to make the trip run like a dream. We are incredibly excited to get back to an in person SIFT in 2022 with a new batch of excited future energy geoscientists. n

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THANK YOU TO ALL THE CSPG SPONSORS TITANIUM

PLATINUM

GOLD

S I LV E R

BRONZE

CORPORATE SUPPORTERS Enhance Energy

Chinook Consulting Services

Imperial Oil Resources

Canamera Coring

McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd.

Eavor

Graham Davies Geological Consultants

Schlumberger Technology Corporation

MJ Systems

Core Laboratories Canada As of August 15th, 2021

ANNUAL CSPG CLASSIC

Elbow Springs Golf Club • Thursday September 16, 2021

SSIC

Tournament Information

would like to thank the following 2019 sponsors: Diamond Sponsors AGAT Laboratories BMO Capital Markets geoLOGIC Systems Little Rock Printing Weatherford Canada

Emerald Sponsors Chinook Consulting Services ProGeo Consultants Typhoon Energy Ltd.

Gold Sponsors

Schedule: Thursday September 16, 2021 12:00pm Registration Opens 1:00pm First Tee Time 6:00pm Matches Finish 7:00pm Awards Banquet

NEW REDUCED PRICE FOR 2021

Where: Elbow Springs Golf Club Format: 2-person teams - Enter with partner of any skill level for two 9-hole matches against other teams of equitable skill level Cost: Member’s Price - $99 +GST Non-member’s Price - $125 +GST

403-262-9229

Online registration and payment only. To register, go to the CSPG website and select the following tabs: “Events,” “Sporting Events,” and “Classic Golf.” or Classic Golf on the home page. Registration limited to 64 players, please register early.

What you get:

18 holes of golf with powercart, driving range registration gifts, skill prizes, door prizes, on-course refreshments, and awards dinner Registration Opens July 16, 2021

Prior to starting registration please have the following information:

Belloy Petroleum Consulting M J Systems Pason Systems Corp.

Name / Company / Phone / Business

Silver Sponsors

Email / Personal Email

Continential Labs Cordax Evalution Technologies Geo-Steering Solutions Keitech Consulting RBC Dominion Securities

Handicap: HCP/Index/Score Partner’s info if registering individually: Partner’s Name / Company / Phone / Business Email / Personal Email

Sponsorship Welcome, Contact Ryan Axani ryan.axani@bmo.com 403.999.3048

Refunds are guaranteed for any health reasons up to September 13th. As of July 1st all indoor dining restrictions have been lifted by AHS however, ESGC is still mindful of safety protocols. Should a new lockdown be imposed, the tournament will be rescheduled for June 2022. All submitted personal information remains private and will not be divulged for commercial purposes such as email addresses and telephone numbers. This information will be used by the tournament only for communications purposes. However images taken during the tournament might be used for publicity purposes.

For 2021, the charity selected is the CSPG Foundation.