In previous topics we have covered the Montney formation in two parts: Introduction & A Closer Look. A younger formation, above the Montney, known as Charlie Lake has been slowly showing up on the radar of many companies currently active in the Montney.
Recent discoveries of the Worsley Member cap rock in Alberta, providing containment for the reservoir, has allowed an opening for more economic horizontal drilling in these locations. The formation has mixed oil percentages ranging anywhere from 20% up to 80% depending on the region.
Current activity in Charlie Lake, with an average well drilling and completion cost of $3.6 million per well:
Tourmaline Oil Corp.
3 Rigs at Peace River (reserves estimated at 24.75 million BOE)
Controls 75% of currently mapped Charlie Lake reserves
35 wells drilled in 2013 – 45 planned for 2014
Birchcliff Energy Ltd.
Reserves estimated at 15.1 million BOE
Artek Exploration
2 wells drilled to date into Charlie Lake
The sandstone/siltstone reservoir rock is bound firmly by anhydrite, a dense evaporite material. The dense anhydrite requires new technologies such as horizontal drilling and fracture techniques to provide strong production/recovery results from Charlie Lake.
Being that the Charlie Lake formation is a lesser developed formation, extra well information to compare On-Site Geology cuttings is vital to the growing knowledge for current Operators. Horizontal well logging, such as Cordax's Logging While Tripping system, provides open hole logging data throughout the entire horizontal leg, helping Operators book reserves and select correct stimulation methods to optimize well to well production.
