3D geological model of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) covers a large part of southern Saskatchewan and hosts many resources such as critical mineral deposits (i.e. potash, helium and lithium) as well as oil and gas reservoirs and is also targeted for deep CO2 storage projects. There is also growing interest in the groundwater resources, the geothermal potential and hydrogen recovery potential. These applications require knowledge of the subsurface geology such as formation thickness and depth, relationships with adjacent formations or unconformities and ultimately, distribution of physical properties within the basin. 3D geological models can provide this knowledge since they characterize the geometry of subsurface geological features. In addition, they can be used as a framework for fluid flow simulation and estimating the distribution a variety of properties. The 3D geological model presented in this report consists of 51 geological units of which, 49 are stratigraphic units spanning from Cambrian Deadwood Formation at the base of the sequence to Upper Cretaceous Belly River Formation at the top, plus the undivided Precambrian and a preliminary Quaternary unit. The model is cut by 7 major regional unconformities, including the base of the Quaternary sediments. The regional model was constrained using oil and gas well data interpretations, provincial scale bedrock geology maps and knowledge from the previously interpreted areal extent of the Phanerozoic strata. A hybrid explicit-implicit modelling approach was employed to produce the 3D geological model of the WCSB in Saskatchewan using Gocad/SKUATM geomodelling software.