Ryder Scott Report A must read !
There are strong similarities between the petroleum system in the Southern Georgina Basin to prolific
conventional oil and gas basins in Western Canada, both stratigraphically and lithologically. The
Mississippian Turner Valley-Elkton erosional sequence in Western Alberta is analogous to the Georgina
Basin strata and the analogy is even stronger with the Mississippian Lodgepole-Mission Canyon
carbonate ramp sequence in southeast Saskatchewan. The Alberta Mississippian section has
produced over 283 million cubic meters (10 trillion cubic feet) of gas and over 159 million cubic meters
(1 billion barrels) of oil from a variety of trapping mechanisms and pool sizes. The Lodgepole-Mission
Canyon carbonate ramp sequence in southeast Saskatchewan is more oil prone and has several
million cubic meters (billion barrels) of in-place-oil reserves in conventional carbonate and sandstone
reservoirs that are similar to those in the Thorntonia Carbonates and Steamboat Sandstones in the
Southern Georgina Basin.
There are also strong technical similarities between the Lower Arthur Creek organic rich “Hot Shale” in
the Southern Georgina Basin and the unconventional oil targets within the Bakken Oil Shale in the
Williston Basin of Canada and United States (US). Southeast Saskatchewan is situated within the
northern part of the very prolific Williston Basin, which covers the US northern states of Montana and
North Dakota. Upper Devonian organic rich Bakken Shales are recognized as one of the primary
hydrocarbon source rocks for both the Saskatchewan and US portions of the Williston Basin. More
recently the Bakken Shale itself has been recognized as the largest and most prolific unconventional
Oil Shale play in North America. The Bakken Oil Shale produces from fine sandstone and silty sections
encased in organic rich Bakken Shale source beds. Bakken Oil Shales are very similar to the Lower
Arthur Creek Hot Oil Shales in the Southern Georgina Basin. A TOC of 2 percent is considered to be
sufficient for Oil Shale plays and both the Bakken and Arthur Creek Oil Shales have much higher
TOC’s. Both shale formations have natural fractures but the limited information from wells in the
Southern Georgina Basin suggest that the Arthur Creek Oil Shales may be more highly fractured than
the Bakken and, therefore, require less fracture stimulation in the Georgina Basin Arthur Creek shale
targets.