THE MCCULLY GAS FIELD: A PROVEN RESOURCE WITH HIGH EXPLORATION POTENTIAL

The McCully Gas Field was discovered in the summer of 2000, near the town of Sussex in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. The extent of the field is defined by over 100 km of new seismic acquisition and seven exploratory wells. The area of closure on the field is defined by a doubly plunging anticline about 12 km long by 5 km wide; the anticline strikes northeasterly.

The reservoir interval occurs within the Hiram Brook Member of the Lower Carboniferous Horton Group. The rocks comprise grey shale and fine to medium grained sandstones, within a fluvial-deltaic clastic sequence that ranges in thickness from 400 m to 800 m. Porosity within the reservoir interval ranges from 6-10% with permeabilities of less than 2 millidarcies. Gas in place is conservatively estimated at 500 bcf, based on a net reservoir thickness of 30 m. As such, it may be regarded as the largest onshore gas discovery in eastern Canada. Gas production from the field is expected to commence by the second quarter of 2003.

Recent fieldwork and analysis of well data suggest the possibility for reservoir rocks in the Dawson Settlement Member, which occurs about 500 m below the Hiram Brook Member. Elsewhere in southern New Brunswick the Dawson Settlement Member consists of a few hundred meters of medium to coarse-grained sandstones with a high net-to-gross ratio. These characteristics suggest that even better reservoir properties may be encountered in the Dawson Settlement sands than those in the Hiram Brook. In addition to ongoing field development plans, future work will include evaluation of the resource potential of the Dawson Settlement Member.