Exploring the Mannville Group

The Mannville Group in central and southern Alberta consists of various hydrocarbon bea ring units including the Glauconitic Sandstone, Ostracod Beds and Ellerslie Member. These targets have been explored extensively in the past , but with varying degrees of success. The spatial extent of these geological trends have been well established, however, the internal reservoir architecture can be complex and drilling success will depend on whether the sands can be properly imaged.

Interpretation of conventional stacked seismic data presents various challenges in mapping the prospective zones. As the stratigraphic column consists of various sand shale sequences, class 2 AVO behaviour is common and amplitudes can potentially stack out due to polarity reversals in the data. Furthermore, the low velocity Mannville coals directly overlying the target zone cause various complex wave propagation effects that can obscure the seismic signal illuminating the zone of interest. This results in mis-ties between well and seismic data that are seen directly at the target zone.