Most folks are not interested in tight gas plays these days. But for Michael Rose, president and chief executive officer of Tourmaline Oil Corp., the Deep Basin of Alberta has been his abiding passion throughout his professional life. First at Shell, next at Berkley Petroleum Corp. and again at Duvernay Oil Corp., Rose has made the Deep Basin his theater of operations. Now at Tourmaline, he continues in that same vein.

Southwestern Alberta’s Deep Basin is one of several important tight gas areas in North America. It’s an immense permeability trap in lower Cretaceous sediments. Some dozen formations are entirely gas saturated with no mobile water. The Deep Basin is one of the largest sweet gas provinces in the world, and to date it has produced 11.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). The remaining reserve potential is stunning: with vertical wells only, another 15 Tcf remains. If a horizontal well is drilled in each section, that adds another 35 Tcf.

“We really like the Deep Basin,” said Rose, speaking at the inaugural Hart Energy DUG Canada 2012 conference, held in Calgary. “But it doesn’t quite get the reverence of the single-zone shale reservoirs.” Nonetheless, Deep Basin rocks have several advantages over shales. The Cretaceous reservoirs have permeabilities ranging between .01 to 1 millidarcy, values that border on those seen in conventional reservoirs. They also have porosities between 5% and 10%, which ensures tremendous storage capacity.

Well deliverabilities and reserves have been steadily increasing, thanks to the development of multistage fracturing technology in vertical wells and the regulatory decision to allow blanket commingling. Today, per-well costs are C$1.8 million and estimated ultimate recoveries are 1.8 to 2.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf). Tourmaline holds 1,800 sections of land and this year it plans to drill 10 to 15 vertical wells and 25 to 30 horizontal wells. The verticals target the entire stacked section of pays, while the horizontals are aimed at specific high-deliverability and liquids-rich intervals. On vertical wells, the operator runs four to five fracs across 10 to 15 zones, while its horizontals typically feature 10 to 15 frac stages.

Two operating practices that set Tourmaline apart are its ubiquitous use of 3-D seismic for siting all of its well locations, and its preference to own the midstream infrastructure that services its wells. Both strategies help it deliver better returns; the seismic by ensuring its wells intersect maximum pay, and the infrastructure ownership and control by allowing it to optimize well performance and maximize liquid recoveries.

“We think the Deep Basin is a great place to work; well results continue to get better,” said Rose. “We think recoverable reserves will continue to accrete.” Currently, the Deep Basin makes around 3.5 Bcf a day, and with some recovery in gas prices, Rose believes daily volumes could reach 5 Bcf.

“Canada does have a very gassy future,” he said. “Gas is an eloquent solution to a number of issues facing not only Canada but all of North America—security of supply, the environment, sustaining a fragile economic recovery. It is an obvious solution, and the Deep Basin is going to be a major component of that.”

Alberta’s Deep Basin offers many advantages when stacked up against other onshore natural gas plays.

.Source: Tourmaline Oil Corp., Hart Energy’s DUG Canada 2012 Conference

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