Case Study - SFD Leads To Goodwin Prospect

Figure 1: Large survey area showing the prospective Goodwin lead and the template line

Western Alberta contains large Middle Devonian Age reef and bank carbonates which are host to some of world class oil and gas reservoirs. There is extensive seismic data available to purchase. A small company trying to reach some hidden oil and gas pool may not have the option to buy all the seismic in the area and to interpret it. In order to expedite the process by quickly focusing on the most prospective areas is the goal of a company like Nexstar Energy. NXT offered the services of SFD survey and interpretation, a novel solution to by-pass the tedious process of seismic purchasing, processing and interpretation.

In late 2006, NXT covered 15000 sq km area by an SFD survey for Nexstar Energy and her partner. Numerous anomalies were ranked. Nexstar started searched on land availability on top 10 SFD anomalies. There was a 3D seismic available to review in exchange of testing a shallow target. After interpreting the 3D, the geophysicist at Nexstar agree that there is a drillable prospect in Lower Swan Hills formation which ties closely to initial lead area provided to them as a result of SFD survey. The prospect was a hydrothermal dolomite gas play within Swan-Hills formation very similar to a pool 30 miles southwest of the prospect known as Rosevear pool (Cum Gas 200 Bcf to date)

Figure 2: SFD signature of analogue Rosevear pool (top) to Goodwin prospect (bottom)

At that point Nexstar came back to NXT to fly another flight to tie the prospect (Goodwin prospect) with a known gas reservoir (Rosevear pool). The results of the new flight line were even more remarkable showing some direct correlations of signature with the analogue pool (Figure 2).

As a result of timely NXT solution, Nexstar was able to focus their efforts on development of exploration core areas without spending a large amount of time and money to evaluate the lands through seismic.