The Duvernay Formation is a stratigraphical unit of

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 th ...

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or 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 Canadian 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 ...

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

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

11-11-50-17W4M by

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...

staff in 1950. The formation was named by Andrichuk and Wonfor in 1954 for the type section in

Duvernay, Alberta Duvernay is a hamlet in central Alberta, Canada within the County of Two Hills No. 21. It is located north of the intersection of Highway 36 and Highway 29 along the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River, approximately southwest of St. ...

. According to Canada's

Alberta Energy Regulator The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is an Alberta corporation, with its main office in Calgary, Alberta. The AER's mandate under the ''Responsible Energy Development Act'' (REDA), passed on 10 December 2012 and proclaimed on 17 June 2013, 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 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 base of extens ...

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

Lithology

The Duvernay Formation is composed of laminated

bituminous Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, calcareous shale and dense argillaceous

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

Pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

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 grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooi ...

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 (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

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 some a ...

and

condensate Condensate may refer to: * The liquid phase produced by the condensation of steam or any other gas * The product of a chemical condensation reaction, other than water * Natural-gas condensate, in the natural gas industry * ''Condensate'' (album) ...

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 bordere ...

using horizontal drilling and multi-stage

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

. $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 the amount of carbon found in an organic compound and is often used as a non-specific indicator of water quality or cleanliness of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment. TOC may also refer to the amount of organic c ...

of 11%.

Hydraulic fracturing in Canada

Massive hydraulic fracturing has been widely used in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

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 gas ...

and

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to 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 se ...

formations in

, Bakken formation in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

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 ...

formations in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

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 (french: Petit lac des Esclaves)—known traditionally as "Beaver Lake" (ᐊᒥᐢᐠ ᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ amisk sâkâhikan in the Plains Cree language, and T’saat’ine migeh in Dene Zhatıé) or "Beaver people were over the ...

Relationship to other units

The Duvernay Formation is a unit of the

Woodbend Group The Woodbend Group is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It was first described in the ''British American Pyrcz No. 1'' well by Imperial Oil geological staff in 1950. Lithology The Formation is co ...

. It is conformably overlain by the Ireton Formation and

Grosmont Formation The Grosmont Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the hamlet of Grosmont, Alberta, and was first described in well Imperial Grosmont No. 1, in 13-17-67-23W4M, centr ...

and it conformably overlays the Cooking Lake Formation. It is equivalent to the

Leduc Formation The Leduc Formation is a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic unit of Late Devonian (Frasnian) Geochronology, age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It takes its name from the city of Leduc, Alberta, Leduc, and it w ...

reefs. it is equivalent to the Perdrix Formation 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 straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

, and is the stratigraphical equivalent of the Muskwa Formation in the Fort Nelson area of North-Eastern

References