Resource assessment

Resource assessments are estimates of the future supply of natural sources of wealth, such as oil, natural gas, coal and coalbed methane.They facilitate long-term public and commercial planning for future supply possibilities and land use options.

Oil and natural gas

At GSC Calgary, assessments of petroleum resources (oil and natural gas) are done on a "play" basis. A play refers to a group of petroleum deposits (pools) that share a common history of hydrocarbon generation, migration, reservoir development and trap configuration.

Basin analysis research provides the framework for play definition. By definition, pools in a specific play form a natural geological population characterized by one or more of the following: age, depositional model, geographic distribution, structural style, trapping mechanism, geometry and diagenesis. The petroleum resource potential of a play is estimated using probabilistic methods within the computer-based PETRIMES system developed at GSC Calgary.

Coal

Assessments of coal resources are done for individual coal deposits using deterministic methods (i.e. not probabilistic) based on the areal extent and thickness of coal beds. Sophisticated computer-based geological modelling and coal resource estimation systems developed at GSC Calgary, combined with extensive digital databases of geological information derived from surface and subsurface coalfield surveys, are used to assess Canada's coal resource potential. Geochemical and petrographic information is used to characterize the coals in individual deposits.

Coalbed methane

Assessments of coalbed methane resources are based on theoretical gas capacity estimates of coal beds. This is a function of thermal maturity (coal rank), depth, and ash and moisture contents of the coals. Several factors (e.g. hydrological conditions, permeability, etc.) can affect the actual gas content within coals. Gas content measurements from exploration wells are used to estimate amounts of methane that may remain stored in selected coal beds.

Expertise in resource assessment