The nature of stacked producing pools in Alberta oil and gas fields presents numerous opportunities and challenges. It is important that geologists learn from examples covering these issues, before the fact. The following are the sequential phases in a Bonnie Glen Cretaceous full cycle case history: 1) prospect generation and acreage acquisition; 2) initial Belly River test; 3) Glauconite and Basal Quartz discoveries; 4) seismic program and development drilling; 5) production and facilities; 6) gross overriding royalty and farmout agreement issues; 7) dispute and settlement; 8) coalbed methane potential; and 9) lessons and conclusions.
There are still many thousands of profitable prospects to be drilled in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Industry restructuring, oil price volatility, and pessimistic undiscovered resource assessments have caused massive professional and business inefficiencies. This has opened a competitive “window of opportunity” for discovery and development of the 15 billion barrels of conventional recoverable oil and 100 TCF of marketable natural gas yet to be proven. However, some of these potential fossil fuel supplies may not be produced due to the necessary transition to alternate, more benign energy sources and a cleaner environment over the next several decades.
