PRELIMINARY RESULTS: 3-DIMENSIONAL ARCHITECTURE AND FACIES ASSOCIATIONS OF THE MCMURRAY FORMATION, NORTH MINE AREA – SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD. (SYNCRUDE) LEASE

The Athabasca Oil Sands of northeastern Alberta, Canada, is host to one of the richest hydrocarbon reserves on planet Earth. The Athabasca Oil Sands deposit contains approximately 144.5 billion m3 (908.7 billion barrels) of bitumen within unlithified sediment. The McMurray Formation holds the majority of this bitumen.

A dataset from the McMurray Formation, consisting of 2107 closely spaced vertical well bores, is used to generate a three-dimensional visualization of the stratal-architecture and facies associations of Syncrude’s North Mine Area. The novel application of Flexible Variable Zone Modeling is used to create a detailed sedimentologic and stratigraphic model from high-density well-bore data (commonly less than 100 m spacing). Due to the horizontal and lateral extent of sedimentologic and stratigraphic heterogeneities within the McMurray Formation, Syncrude’s Lithofacies (approximately 45 individual facies) are amalgamated into approximately 7 facies associations and subsequently mapped in three dimensions. The methodology for developing such models is discussed in detail and is the main focus of the current study.