Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland ...ONTARIO MANITOBA NUNAVUT SOUTHAMPTON...
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ONTARIO MANITOBA NUNAVUT SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND QUEBEC 400 km N Hudson Bay Basin Williston Basin Foxe Basin Hudson Strait Moose River Basin oil shale reefs oil shows HTD O RHR Devonian Ordovician LEGEND S KRm S KRl S AT S ER S SR Kenogami River Fm. (middle) Kenogami River Fm. (lower) Attawapiskat Fm. Ekwan River Fm Severn River Fm. Silurian D MR D K D STR D KRu Moose River Fm. Kwataboahegan Fm. Stooping River Fm. Kenogami River Fm. (upper) O CR O BCR Red Head Rapids Fm. Churchill River Gp. Bad Cache Rapids Gp. Stratigraphic test hole or mineral exploration borehole with available core in Winnipeg Kennco No. 2 0 50 100 kilometres project area PRECAMBRIAN O RHR Churchill Hudson Bay Manitoba Ontario D MR D K D STR D KRu S KRm S KRl S AT S ER S SR O BCR O CR Gillam Split Lake Churchill River Nelson River Hayes River Seal River Whitebear Creek Comeault No. 1 Kaskattama No. 1 Kennco No. 5 Kennco No. 2 Pennycutaway No. 1 ADD-5-1 ADD-9-1 ADD-16-1 ADD-6-1 M-1-2003 M-2-2003 M-3-2003 M-4-2003 M-5-2003 Pennycutaway No. 2 Foran Mining Kaskattama Kimberlite No. 1 . o 58 49’ N o 88 23’ W o 96 01’ W o 55 04’ N Precambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Bad Cache Rapids Gp. Churchill River Gp. Red Head Rapids Fm. Portage Chute Fm. Surprise Creek Fm. Caution Creek Fm. Chasm Creek Fm. Severn River Fm. Ekwan River Fm. Attawapiskat Fm. Stooping River Fm. Kenogami River Fm. lower middle upper 100 200 300 0 TD = 332 m Rock Eval Chitinozoans Tertiary? Quaternary TD = 427 m 100 200 300 400 0 Rock Eval Conodonts Chitinozoans TD = 648 m 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 Rock Eval Chitinozoans TD = 896 m 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 0 Rock Eval Chitinozoans Datum: Top of Severn River Fm. Foran KK1 Whitebear Creek Comeault No.1 Kaskattama No.1 STRATIGRAPHY OIL SOURCE a) b) c) a) b) c) OIL RESERVOIRS Figure 16: Core photo of reefal units in the Attawapiskat Formation from a) the Houston Oils et al. Comeault No. 1 core; b) the Merland et al. Whitebear Creek Prov. core, at a depth of approximately 56 m; and (c) the Sogepet et al. Kaskattama No. 1 core, at a depth of approximately 332 m. Scale is in centimetres. b) c) a) a) b) c) b) a) c) d) a) b) Figure 17: (a), (b) and (c) Attawapiskat reefs outcropping along the Severn River, northern Ontario. Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland, northeastern Manitoba 1 Manitoba Geological Survey, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 2 Geological Survey of Canada, Québec, Québec, Canada 3 Ontario Geological Survey, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada 1 2 3 M.P.B. Nicolas , D. Lavoie and D.K. Armstrong MGS m a n i t o b a g e o l o g i c a l s u r v e y 1 9 2 8 Attawapiskat Severn River Red Head Rapids Caution Creek Surprise Creek Portage Chute, Mb. 1 FORMATIONS 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 0 50 100 150 200 Hydrogen index (S2/TOC; mg hydrcarbons/g C ) org Oxygen index (S3/TOC; mg CO /g C ) 2 org Type III (gas prone) Type II (oil prone) Type I (oil prone) 106-11-HBL-WB-7 FORMATIONS Attawapiskat Severn River Red Head Rapids Caution Creek Surprise Creek Portage Chute, Mb. 1 c) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 106-11-HBL-WB-7 TOC (wt. %) b) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 Production index a) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 400 405 410 415 420 425 430 435 440 445 Depth (m) o T ( C) max poor very good fair good Seawater Classical HTD - TBR 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -12 -14 -16 -18 -20 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 1 2 d 18 O d 13 C 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Saddle dolomite - Southampton Saddle dolomite - M-04-03 Groundmass dolomite M-04-03 core Groundmass dolomite M-05-03 core Figure 14: Ordovician hydrothermal dolomite from Cape Donovan on Southampton Island, Nuvanut, northern Hudson Bay; (a) saddle dolomite lining vugs; (b) brecciated mudstone with hydrothermal dolomite infilling between clasts. Figure 2: Geological map with Phanerozoic basins indicated in blue (Paleozoic-aged units) and green (Mesozoic-aged units). Manitoba and Ontario Paleozoic strata in the Hudson Bay Lowland is shown in different colours. Stratigraphic border “faults” between Manitoba and Ontario’s strata show how much more work is still needed to better understand the complex stratigraphic relationships in the Hudson Bay Basin. (Ontario and Nunavut unit boundaries are from Douglas, 1969). References Armstrong, D. K. and Lavoie, D. 2010: Re-appraisal of the hydrocarbon resource potential of the Hudson Platform: project introduction and preliminary results from northern Ontario; in Proceedings of the Ontario Petroleum Institute, 49th Annual Conference, Technical Paper 15, 12 p. Douglas, R. J. W. 1969: Geological map of Canada; Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map, Map 1250A, scale 1:5 000 000. Lavoie, D., Zhang, S. and Pinet, N. 2011: Hydrothermal dolomites in Hudson Bay Platform and southeast Arctic Platform: preliminary field and geochemical data; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7002, 22 p. Nicolas, M. P. B. and Lavoie, D. 2009: Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project: introduction to the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals, GEM-Energy initiative, northeastern Manitoba (parts of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2009, Manitoba Science, Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p. 160-164. Nicolas, M. P. B. and Lavoie, D. 2010: Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project: update on a Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program (GEM) initiative, northeastern Manitoba (part of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2010, Manitoba Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p. 186-192. Nicolas, M.P.N, and Lavoie, D. 2012: Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland, northeastern Manitoba (part of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2012, Manitoba Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p.124 – 133. Ramdoyal, A. 2012: Lithofacies analysis, diagenesis and petroleum reservoir potential of the Lower Silurian Attawapiskat Formation, Hudson Bay Basin, northeastern Manitoba; B.Sc. thesis, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 124 p. Roberts, B. and Craven, J. 2012: Results of a magnetotelluric survey in Churchill, Manitoba: GEM Energy, Hudson Bay; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7151, 24 p. Zhang, S. 2008: New insights into Ordovician oil shales in Hudson Bay Basin: their number, stratigraphic position, and petroleum potential; Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, v. 56, p. 300-324 This poster was presented at: Manitoba Mines and Minerals Convention Winnipeg, MB, Canada November 15-17, 2012 Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank G. Benger, V. Varga and R. Unruh and the summer students from the Manitoba Geological Survey Rock Preparation and Core Storage Facility for their help in locating available core and preparing it for viewing. The authors like to acknowledge the GSC-Calgary Geochemistry Laboratory, A.D. McCracken of the GSC-Calgary paleontology laboratory, and E. Asselin of the GSC-Québec paleontology laboratory for analyzing the samples and providing reliable technical support. Economic considerations The results that were collected to date support an active hydrocarbon system in the Hudson Bay Basin. As detailed in Nicolas and Lavoie (2012), the Hudson Bay Basin has all the required elements for successful hydrocarbon exploration including confirmed basinal distribution of source rocks, adequate maturation rank of the Silurian and Ordovician succession, HTD and Silurian reefs to provide the reservoirs, and faults and stratigraphic relationships to provide the potential traps. The re-assessment of the Hudson Bay Basin using modern technology, and viewing old and new data through a modern lens has proven to be a successful venture. What was once thought as a large area without hydrocarbon potential has now been transformed into a highly prospective frontier area worth of industry investment. Exploration in the north brings a significant positive economic impact and development to northern communities, and with Manitoba's coastal location, including a deepwater port at Churchill and rail line to major markets, successful hydrocarbon exploration in the Hudson Bay Basin would benefit all of Manitoba. Figure 12: Core photos of M-4-03 showing: (a) dissolution vugs in limestone with dolomite coating walls and late calcite cement; (b) dissolution vugs in limestone with fine sucrosic dolomite filling pore spaces; (c) forced replacement of limestone by dolomite, dark specks are bitumen droplets in dolomite, and 30 cm long open vertical fracture which controlled dolomitization; (d) cross-section of controlled dolomitization along fracture wall. Core diameter is 2 inches. (from Nicolas and Lavoie, 2009) Figure 9: Milky white cut from oil in a sample of an oil shale from the Severn River Formation in the Comeault Prov. 1 core, as seen under ultraviolet (UV) light. Figure 6: Core photographs of dark brown laminated oil shale from the Merland et al. Whitebear Creek Prov. well in the Red Head Rapids Formations at a depth of (a) 221.28 m, (b) 220.98 m, and (c) 179.98 m in the Severn River Formation. Scale is in centimetres. Figure 11: Core photograph showing oil staining in the Severn River Formation of the Houston Oils et al. Comeault Prov. No. 1 well at a depth of 415.4 m; scale in centimetres. Figure 15: Core photograph showing potential HTD in the Severn River Formation in the Houston Oils et al. Comeault Prov. No. 1 well at a depth of 411.8 m; scale is in centimetres. Figure 5: Rock Eval data grouped by formation and plotted against depth for (a) T , (b) max Production Index, and (c) TOC. Kaskattama No.1 samples are highlighted with open circles. In (a) and (b) green shaded areas indicate the area of thermal maturation, that is they are within the oil window; for PI it may also indicate contamination by migrated hydrocarbons. In (c) the yellow shaded areas indicate the quality of the hydrocarbon generative potential of the source rock (poor to very good). Figure 4: Modified van Krevelen diagram of new Rock Eval data grouped by formation; blue box indicates samples that have a HI > 300 and OI < 50. Figure 3: Stratigraphic columns for four of the wells on which sampling was conducted for Rock Eval geochemistry, and conodont and chitinozoan biostratigraphy; sampled intervals are shown by the black dots; depths are in metres. Formations are indicated by similar colours as Figure 1. Figure 1: Hudson Bay Lowland in northeastern Manitoba, showing the location of cores available; insert is the project areas for the GEM Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project. Figure 7: (a) Oil shale beds within the Red Head Rapids Formation, northern Hudson Bay, Cape Donovan, Southampton Island, Nunavut; (b) close up of bed in (a). c) Paper-thin oil shale laminae (indicated with arrows) in the Red Head Rapids Formation in west-central Southampton Island (between Sixteen Mile and Rocky brooks). Figure 8: Oil shale of the Boas River Formation along Asheweig River, northern Ontario. The Boas River Formation is only officially recognized in Ontario, and occurs as the uppermost unit of the Ordovician Bad Cache Rapids Group. Figure 10: Bituminous residue along an open vertical fracture in MH unit 3 of Manitoba Hydro Conawapa Axis B - C292 core (Nicolas and Lavoie, 2012). During an intensive core sampling program, samples for biostratigraphy were collected, and conodont and chitinozoan analyses were used to assist in formational assignments and to better understand the straigraphy. As TM well, RockEval 6 analyses were conducted on 37 samples from Silurian and Ordovician formations to look for potential source rocks in the succession preserved in the HBL of Manitoba. (Figure 3) TM Overall, the RockEval 6 analyses resulted in the recognition of a fair number of samples having moderate to good source rock potential, but most of them are considered thermally immature (Figure 4, 5 and 6). One sample (106-11-HBL-WB-7) from the Red Head Rapids Formation has yielded 8.44 wt.% total organic carbon (TOC; sample shown in Figure 5c and outlined in Figure 6a), thus is considered a true oil shale, and confirms the extension of previously found oil shale units in Nunavut (Figure 7; Zhang, 2008) and northern Ontario (Figure 8; Armstrong and Lavoie, 2010). Evidence of oil generation and migration are seen in the core in the form of (1) live oil shows from shale samples submersed in acetone (Figure 9), (2) bituminous residue along open vertical fractures (Figure 10), and (3) oil staining in porous carbonate units (Figure 11). Figure 2 shows the locations of the source rocks and evidence for oil migration. Previously, the presence of hydrothermal dolomite (HTD) in Manitoba core in the HBL was confirmed petrographically and with stable isotopes geochemistry (Figure 12 and 13). HTD was also found and confirmed in outcrop on Southampton Island (Figure 14; Lavoie et al., 2011).Two more occurrences of potential HTD in Manitoba core indicate that this type of feature may be common in the HBL; Figure 15 shows one of these occurrences. A magnetotelluric survey conducted by the GSC (Roberts and Craven, 2012) in the vicinity of the confirmed HTD occurrence near Churchill indicated potential porous zones in the subsurface, which is common in HTD. For northeastern Manitoba, the best reservoirs are likely in the Upper Ordovician to Lower–Middle Devonian succession. In that interval, two main types of reservoirs can be envisaged: 1) HTD documented in the Ordovician succession near Churchill (Figure 12; Nicolas and Lavoie, 2009; Lavoie et al., 2011) and postulated in the Lower Silurian carbonate rocks (Figure 15; Nicolas and Lavoie, 2012) and; locations shown in Figure 2. 2) lower Silurian reefs of the Attawapiskat Formation which have only recently been shown to be locally highly porous (Figure 16; Ramdoyal, 2012). Figure 17 shows Attawapiskat Formation patch reefs outcropping in northern Ontario along the Severn River (Armstrong, 2011); locations shown in Figure 2. The Hudson Bay and Foxe basins project is in its fourth and final year. It is part of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) Geomapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program. In Manitoba, the Hudson Bay Basin is represented by the Paleozoic carbonate succession of the Hudson Bay Lowland (HBL) in the northeastern corner of the province. (Figure 1) While work is still needed to better understand the stratigraphy at a basin scale, this project has demonstrated that the Hudson Bay Basin has all the right elements and conditions for hydrocarbon systems to exist, including mature and diverse source rocks, attractive reservoirs and efficient traps and seals. Identification of mature source rocks is key to having a hydrocarbon system, and these have been identified in parts of the basin. (Figure 2) HYDROTHERMAL DOLOMITE REEFS 1. 2. 3. 4. MIGRATED OIL 18 13 Figure 13: ä O vs ä C plot for saddle dolomite and groundmass dolomite from various localities in the Hudson platform and Foxe Basin. Classical HTD-TBR refers to hydrothermal dolomite found in the Trenton and Black River (TBR) groups in the Appalachian Basin. (modified from Lavoie et al., 2011)
Transcript of Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland ...ONTARIO MANITOBA NUNAVUT SOUTHAMPTON...
ONTARIO
MANITOBA
NUNAVUT
SOUTHAMPTONISLAND
QUEBEC
400 km
N
Hudson BayBasin
WillistonBasin
FoxeBasin Hudson Strait
Moose RiverBasin
oil shale
reefs
oil shows
HTD
ORHR
Devonian Ordovician
LEGEND
SKRm
SKRl
SAT
SER
SSR
Kenogami River Fm. (middle)
Kenogami River Fm. (lower)
Attawapiskat Fm.
Ekwan River Fm
Severn River Fm.
Silurian
DMR
DK
DSTR
DKRu
Moose River Fm.
Kwataboahegan Fm.
Stooping River Fm.
Kenogami River Fm. (upper)
OCR
OBCR
Red Head Rapids Fm.
Churchill River Gp.
Bad Cache Rapids Gp.
Stratigraphic test hole or mineral exploration borehole with available core in Winnipeg
Kennco No. 2
0 50 100
kilometres
project area
PRECAMBRIAN
OR
HR
Churchill
HudsonBay
Man
itoba
Ont
ario
DMRDK
DSTR
DKRu
SKRmS
KRlSAT
SER
SSR
OBCR
OCR
Gillam
Split Lake
Chu
rchi
ll River
Nelson River
Haye
s R
iver
Seal River
Whitebear Creek
Comeault No. 1
Kaskattama No. 1
Kennco No. 5
Kennco No. 2
Pennycutaway No. 1
ADD-5-1
ADD-9-1 ADD-16-1
ADD-6-1
M-1-2003M-2-2003M-3-2003
M-4-2003M-5-2003
Pennycutaway No. 2
Foran Mining KaskattamaKimberlite No. 1
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o58 49’ N
o88 23’ W
o96 01’ W
o55 04’ N
Precambrian
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Churc
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Red Head Rapids Fm.
PortageChute Fm.
Surprise Creek Fm.
Caution Creek Fm.
Chasm Creek Fm.
Severn River Fm.
Ekwan River Fm.
Attawapiskat Fm.
Stooping River Fm.
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Datum:Top of SevernRiver Fm.
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Comeault No.1 Kaskattama No.1
STRATIGRAPHY
OIL SOURCE
a)
b)
c)
a) b) c)
OILRESERVOIRS
Figure 16: Core photo of reefal units in the Attawapiskat Formation from a) the Houston Oils et al. Comeault No. 1 core; b) the Merland et al. Whitebear Creek Prov. core, at a depth of approximately 56 m; and (c) the Sogepet et al. Kaskattama No. 1 core, at a depth of approximately 332 m. Scale is in centimetres.
b) c)a)
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c) d)
a)
b)
Figure 17: (a), (b) and (c) Attawapiskat reefs outcropping along the Severn River, northern Ontario.
Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland, northeastern Manitoba
1Manitoba Geological Survey, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada2Geological Survey of Canada, Québec, Québec, Canada
3Ontario Geological Survey, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
1 2 3M.P.B. Nicolas , D. Lavoie and D.K. ArmstrongMGS
ma
nit
ob
a
geologicals
ur
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1928
Attawapiskat
Severn River
Red Head Rapids
Caution Creek
Surprise Creek
Portage Chute, Mb. 1
FORMATIONS
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ge
n i
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2/T
OC
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g h
yd
rca
rbo
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/g C
)o
rg
Oxygen index (S3/TOC; mg CO /g C )2 org
Type III(gas prone)
Type II (oil prone)
Type I (oil prone)
106-11-HBL-WB-7
FORMATIONS
Attawapiskat
Severn River
Red Head Rapids
Caution Creek
Surprise Creek
Portage Chute, Mb. 1
c)
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Saddle dolomite - Southampton
Saddle dolomite - M-04-03 Groundmass dolomite M-04-03 core
Groundmass dolomite M-05-03 core
Figure 14: Ordovician hydrothermal dolomite from Cape Donovan on Southampton Island, Nuvanut, northern Hudson Bay; (a) saddle dolomite lining vugs; (b) brecciated mudstone with hydrothermal dolomite infilling between clasts.
Figure 2: Geological map with Phanerozoic basins indicated in blue (Paleozoic-aged units) and green (Mesozoic-aged units). Manitoba and Ontario Paleozoic strata in the Hudson Bay Lowland is shown in different colours. Stratigraphic border “faults” between Manitoba and Ontario’s strata show how much more work is still needed to better understand the complex stratigraphic relationships in the Hudson Bay Basin. (Ontario and Nunavut unit boundaries are from Douglas, 1969).
References
Armstrong, D. K. and Lavoie, D. 2010: Re-appraisal of the hydrocarbon resource potential of the Hudson Platform: project introduction and preliminary results from northern Ontario; in Proceedings of the Ontario Petroleum Institute, 49th Annual Conference, Technical Paper 15, 12 p.
Douglas, R. J. W. 1969: Geological map of Canada; Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map, Map 1250A, scale 1:5 000 000.
Lavoie, D., Zhang, S. and Pinet, N. 2011: Hydrothermal dolomites in Hudson Bay Platform and southeast Arctic Platform: preliminary field and geochemical data; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7002, 22 p.
Nicolas, M. P. B. and Lavoie, D. 2009: Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project: introduction to the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals, GEM-Energy initiative, northeastern Manitoba (parts of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2009, Manitoba Science, Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p. 160-164.
Nicolas, M. P. B. and Lavoie, D. 2010: Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project: update on a Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program (GEM) initiative, northeastern Manitoba (part of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2010, Manitoba Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p. 186-192.
Nicolas, M.P.N, and Lavoie, D. 2012: Oil shale and reservoir rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland, northeastern Manitoba (part of NTS 54); in Report of Activities 2012, Manitoba Innovation, Energy and Mines, Manitoba Geological Survey, p.124 – 133.
Ramdoyal, A. 2012: Lithofacies analysis, diagenesis and petroleum reservoir potential of the Lower Silurian Attawapiskat Formation, Hudson Bay Basin, northeastern Manitoba; B.Sc. thesis, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 124 p.
Roberts, B. and Craven, J. 2012: Results of a magnetotelluric survey in Churchill, Manitoba: GEM Energy, Hudson Bay; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7151, 24 p.
Zhang, S. 2008: New insights into Ordovician oil shales in Hudson Bay Basin: their number, stratigraphic position, and petroleum potential; Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, v. 56, p. 300-324
This poster was presented at:
Manitoba Mines and Minerals ConventionWinnipeg, MB, CanadaNovember 15-17, 2012
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank G. Benger, V. Varga and R. Unruh and the summer students from the Manitoba Geological Survey Rock Preparation and Core Storage Facility for their help in locating available core and preparing it for viewing.
The authors like to acknowledge the GSC-Calgary Geochemistry Laboratory, A.D. McCracken of the GSC-Calgary paleontology laboratory, and E. Asselin of the GSC-Québec paleontology laboratory for analyzing the samples and providing reliable technical support.
Economic considerations
The results that were collected to date support an active hydrocarbon system in the Hudson Bay Basin. As detailed in Nicolas and Lavoie (2012), the Hudson Bay Basin has all the required elements for successful hydrocarbon exploration including confirmed basinal distribution of source rocks, adequate maturation rank of the Silurian and Ordovician succession, HTD and Silurian reefs to provide the reservoirs, and faults and stratigraphic relationships to provide the potential traps.
The re-assessment of the Hudson Bay Basin using modern technology, and viewing old and new data through a modern lens has proven to be a successful venture. What was once thought as a large area without hydrocarbon potential has now been transformed into a highly prospective frontier area worth of industry investment. Exploration in the north brings a significant positive economic impact and development to northern communities, and with Manitoba's coastal location, including a deepwater port at Churchill and rail line to major markets, successful hydrocarbon exploration in the Hudson Bay Basin would benefit all of Manitoba.
Figure 12: Core photos of M-4-03 showing: (a) dissolution vugs in limestone with dolomite coating walls and late calcite cement; (b) dissolution vugs in limestone with fine sucrosic dolomite filling pore spaces; (c) forced replacement of limestone by dolomite, dark specks are bitumen droplets in dolomite, and 30 cm long open vertical fracture which controlled dolomitization; (d) cross-section of controlled dolomitization along fracture wall. Core diameter is 2 inches. (from Nicolas and Lavoie, 2009)
Figure 9: Milky white cut from oil in a sample of an oil shale from the Severn River Formation in the Comeault Prov. 1 core, as seen under ultraviolet (UV) light.
Figure 6: Core photographs of dark brown laminated oil shale from the Merland et al. Whitebear Creek Prov. well in the Red Head Rapids Formations at a depth of (a) 221.28 m, (b) 220.98 m, and (c) 179.98 m in the Severn River Formation. Scale is in centimetres.
Figure 11: Core photograph showing oil staining in the Severn River Formation of the Houston Oils et al. Comeault Prov. No. 1 well at a depth of 415.4 m; scale in centimetres.
Figure 15: Core photograph showing potential HTD in the Severn River Formation in the Houston Oils et al. Comeault Prov. No. 1 well at a depth of 411.8 m; scale is in centimetres.
Figure 5: Rock Eval data grouped by formation and plotted against depth for (a) T , (b) max
Production Index, and (c) TOC. Kaskattama No.1 samples are highlighted with open circles. In (a) and (b) green shaded areas indicate the area of thermal maturation, that is they are within the oil window; for PI it may also indicate contamination by migrated hydrocarbons. In (c) the yellow shaded areas indicate the quality of the hydrocarbon generative potential of the source rock (poor to very good).
Figure 4: Modified van Krevelen diagram of new Rock Eval data grouped by formation; blue box indicates samples that have a HI > 300 and OI < 50.
Figure 3: Stratigraphic columns for four of the wells on which sampling was conducted for Rock Eval geochemistry, and conodont and chitinozoan biostratigraphy; sampled intervals are shown by the black dots; depths are in metres. Formations are indicated by similar colours as Figure 1.
Figure 1: Hudson Bay Lowland in northeastern Manitoba, showing the location of cores available; insert is the project areas for the GEM Hudson Bay and Foxe Basins Project.
Figure 7: (a) Oil shale beds within the Red Head Rapids Formation, northern Hudson Bay, Cape Donovan, Southampton Island, Nunavut; (b) close up of bed in (a). c) Paper-thin oil shale laminae (indicated with arrows) in the Red Head Rapids Formation in west-central Southampton Island (between Sixteen Mile and Rocky brooks).
Figure 8: Oil shale of the Boas River Formation along Asheweig River, northern Ontario. The Boas River Formation is only officially recognized in Ontario, and occurs as the uppermost unit of the Ordovician Bad Cache Rapids Group.
Figure 10: Bituminous residue along an open vertical fracture in MH unit 3 of Manitoba Hydro Conawapa Axis B - C292 core (Nicolas and Lavoie, 2012).
During an intensive core sampling program, samples for biostratigraphy were collected, and conodont and chitinozoan analyses were used to assist in formational assignments and to better understand the straigraphy. As
TMwell, RockEval 6 analyses were conducted on 37 samples from Silurian and Ordovician formations to look for potential source rocks in the succession preserved in the HBL of Manitoba. (Figure 3)
TMOverall, the RockEval 6 analyses resulted in the recognition of a fair number of samples having moderate to good source rock potential, but most of them are considered thermally immature (Figure 4, 5 and 6). One sample (106-11-HBL-WB-7) from the Red Head Rapids Formation has yielded 8.44 wt.% total organic carbon (TOC; sample shown in Figure 5c and outlined in Figure 6a), thus is considered a true oil shale, and confirms the extension of previously found oil shale units in Nunavut (Figure 7; Zhang, 2008) and northern Ontario (Figure 8; Armstrong and Lavoie, 2010). Evidence of oil generation and migration are seen in the core in the form of (1) live oil shows from shale samples submersed in acetone (Figure 9), (2) bituminous residue along open vertical fractures (Figure 10), and (3) oil staining in porous carbonate units (Figure 11). Figure 2 shows the locations of the source rocks and evidence for oil migration.
Previously, the presence of hydrothermal dolomite (HTD) in Manitoba core in the HBL was confirmed petrographically and with stable isotopes geochemistry (Figure 12 and 13). HTD was also found and confirmed in outcrop on Southampton Island (Figure 14; Lavoie et al., 2011).Two more occurrences of potential HTD in Manitoba core indicate that this type of feature may be common in the HBL; Figure 15 shows one of these occurrences. A magnetotelluric survey conducted by the GSC (Roberts and Craven, 2012) in the vicinity of the confirmed HTD occurrence near Churchill indicated potential porous zones in the subsurface, which is common in HTD.
For northeastern Manitoba, the best reservoirs are likely in the Upper Ordovician to Lower–Middle Devonian succession. In that interval, two main types of reservoirs can be envisaged:
1) HTD documented in the Ordovician succession near Churchill (Figure 12; Nicolas and Lavoie, 2009; Lavoie et al., 2011) and postulated in the Lower Silurian carbonate rocks (Figure 15; Nicolas and Lavoie, 2012) and; locations shown in Figure 2.2) lower Silurian reefs of the Attawapiskat Formation which have only recently been shown to be locally highly porous (Figure 16; Ramdoyal, 2012). Figure 17 shows Attawapiskat Formation patch reefs outcropping in northern Ontario along the Severn River (Armstrong, 2011); locations shown in Figure 2.
The Hudson Bay and Foxe basins project is in its fourth and final year. It is part of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) Geomapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program. In Manitoba, the Hudson Bay Basin is represented by the Paleozoic carbonate succession of the Hudson Bay Lowland (HBL) in the northeastern corner of the province. (Figure 1)
While work is still needed to better understand the stratigraphy at a basin scale, this project has demonstrated that the Hudson Bay Basin has all the right elements and conditions for hydrocarbon systems to exist, including mature and diverse source rocks, attractive reservoirs and efficient traps and seals. Identification of mature source rocks is key to having a hydrocarbon system, and these have been identified in parts of the basin. (Figure 2)
HYDROTHERMALDOLOMITE
REEFS
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MIGRATED OIL
18 13Figure 13: ä O vs ä C plot for saddle dolomite and groundmass dolomite from various localities in the Hudson platform and Foxe Basin. Classical HTD-TBR refers to hydrothermal dolomite found in the Trenton and Black River (TBR) groups in the Appalachian Basin. (modified from Lavoie et al., 2011)
