The Duvernay Formation is a

stratigraphic unit A stratigraphic unit is a volume of rock of identifiable origin and relative age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features ( facies) that characteriz ...

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during ...

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone has been alive or something has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

in the

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) underlies of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. This vast sedimentary b ...

. It was first described in well Anglo Canadian Beaverhill Lake No. 2 in

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

11-11-50-17W4M by

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited () is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, ...

staff in 1950. The formation was named by Andrichuk and Wonfor in 1954 for the type section in Duvernay, Alberta. According to Canada's

Alberta Energy Regulator The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is a quasi-judicial, independent agency regulating the development of energy resources in Alberta. Headquartered in Calgary, the AER's mandate under the ''Responsible Energy Development Act'' (REDA) is "to ...

, the Duvernay Formation "holds an estimated 443 trillion cubic feet of gas and 61.7 billion barrels of oil (Penny China Institute 2012-12)." Calgary-based,

Athabasca Oil Corporation Athabasca Oil Corporation is a Canadians, Canadian energy company with a focused strategy on the development of thermal and light oil assets. Situated in Alberta's Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the company has amassed a significant land bas ...

(formerly Athabasca Oil Sands Corporation), holds 640,000 acres, the largest publicly disclosed Duvernay rights.

Lithology

The Duvernay Formation is composed of laminated

bituminous Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American English, the m ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

, calcareous shale and dense argillaceous

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

Pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

disseminations are common.

Calcarenite Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), Carbonate rock, carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either cor ...

and coral rich

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

are also present.

Hydrocarbon production

The Duvernay Formation represents the source rock for prolific reservoirs such as the Leduc reefs.

Shale gas Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s, a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and ...

and condensate is produced from the Duvernay Formation in

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordered ...

using horizontal drilling and multi-stage

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of Formation (geology), formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the ...

. $2 billion was paid for leases during 2010 and 2011. Prices for land remained high as of June, 2012 despite costs of drilling being expensive. Parts of the deposit show

total organic carbon Total organic carbon (TOC) is an analytical parameter representing the concentration of organic carbon in a sample. TOC determinations are made in a variety of application areas. For example, TOC may be used as a non-specific indicator of wa ...

of 11%.

Hydraulic fracturing in Canada

Massive hydraulic fracturing has been widely used in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

since the late 1970s. The method is currently used in development of the Cardium, Duvernay,

Montney Montney is an unincorporated locality located in British Columbia about north of Fort St. John, near Beatton Provincial Park. It lies at an elevation of , along the BC Rail tracks. The settlement gives the name to the Montney Formation, a ...

and

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

formations in

, Bakken formation in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and

Horn River The Horn River is a river in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is a major tributary of the Mackenzie River. The river gives the name to the Horn River Formation, a shale deposit of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The Horn River Bas ...

formations in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Distribution

The Duvernay Formation is present in the sub-surface in

. It reaches a maximum thickness of east of

Lesser Slave Lake Lesser Slave Lake is located in northern Alberta, Canada, northwest of Edmonton. It is the second largest lake entirely within Alberta boundaries (and the largest easily accessible by vehicle), covering and measuring over long and at its wid ...

Relationship to other units

The Duvernay Formation is a unit of the Woodbend Group. It is conformably overlain by the Ireton Formation and Grosmont Formation and it conformably overlays the Cooking Lake Formation. It is equivalent to the

Leduc Formation The Leduc Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Devonian (Frasnian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It takes its name from the city of Leduc, and it was formally described from the B.A. Pyrz No. 1 well in central Alberta, between ...

reefs. it is equivalent to the

Perdrix Formation The Perdrix Formation is a geologic formation of Late Devonian ( Frasnian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It named for Roche à Perdrix in Jasper National Park, Alberta, by P.E. Raymond in 1930. It includes fossils of marine an ...

in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, and is the stratigraphical equivalent of the

Muskwa Formation The Muskwa Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from Muskwa River, and was first described in the Western National Gas Fort Nelson a-95-J/94-J-10 well by F.F. Gray and J.R ...

in the

Fort Nelson A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

area of North-Eastern

References

{{shale gas Geologic formations of Alberta Oil-bearing shales in Canada Natural gas fields in Canada Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Devonian Alberta Devonian System of North America Devonian southern paleotropical deposits Frasnian Stage Shale gas Mudstone formations of Canada Shale formations of Canada

Lithology

Hydrocarbon production

Hydraulic fracturing in Canada

Distribution

Relationship to other units

See also

References