Geology and hydrocarbon potential of Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories
In 1921, the first hole drilled for oil in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, located on a natural seep at Norman Wells, made a major discovery in the Kee Scarp Limestone. Since then, in this remove 200,000 km/sup 2/ area, stretching from the Alberta border north to the Artic Circle, a further 500 exploratory wells have been drilled, and there has been one other commercial discovery. In the course of this exploration, however, hydrocarbon shows have been recorded in all the major sequences, ranging in age from Cambrian to Cretaceous. Deposition of Cambrian sands and evaporates was controlled by a series of linear arches that persisted until the Middle Devonian. In the Colville Hills area, a significant gas show has been found in basal sandstones overlain by evaporites. Throughout the Ordovician and Silurian, thick sequences of evaporities and carbonates were laid down. These sequences are generally nonprospective except in the southwest where a commercial gas field, Kotaneelee, is developed in fractured shoal carbonates. The Middle Devonian Hume and Kee Scarp formations represent periods of reef growth. The Kee Scarp has been extensively explored in the Mackenzie Valley, ad to date, Norman Wells has been the only success. The Hume formation has been less well explored and has potential in pinnacle reefs growing on a shoal carbonate bank. These Paleozoic sequences constitute the primary prospective zones in the Northwest Territories. The Mississippian is only locally preserved. Exploration in the Cretaceous will be primarily stratigraphic as structures have been complexly affected by the Laramide orogeny. In this relatively undrilled area, ongoing exploration has the potential to lead to major discoveries in the Mackenzie Valley.
- OSTI ID:
- 6503837
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-880301-
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Houston, TX, USA, 20 Mar 1988
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
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PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
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MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
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