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CMC Research Inc.’s Field Research Station and Shell Quest

August 2nd, 2017

Kirk Osadetz, Donald Lawton and Amin Saeedfar (CMCRI) and Luc Rock (Shell)

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Itinerary and Route:

The purpose of this trip is to visit CMC Research Institute’s (CMC) Newell County Field Research Station (FRS) for subsurface containment and monitoring. Programs performed at FRS will be conducted by CMC in partnership with the University of Calgary and other academic, industrial and government partners and clients. Although the primary FRS research focus is secure carbon dioxide storage (SCS) in geological media, the results and benefits will be more widely applicable to subsurface issues of engineering conformance and containment monitoring. FRS will become a major international nexus for subsurface, surface and atmospheric scientific and engineering research and education coupled with new technology development and demonstrations. It will also serve as a major public outreach tool for SCS. FRS is located on a surface and subsurface site, kindly provided by Cenovus Energy Ltd. covering slightly more than 2.5 km2 in Newell County southeast of Calgary. The field trip also makes stops and addresses environmental changes on geological and historical time-scales, both progressive and catastrophic, some natural and other anthropogenic.

Figure 1, Field Trip Route and Stops

This one-day field trip departs from Hotel Alma (Stop A, Figure 1), on the University of Calgary Campus and it visits both FRS and Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The FRS is located southwest of Brooks Alberta in Section 22, Township 017, Range 16 west of the fourth meridian on the south side of Provincial highway 539, 8.4 km west of its junction with Provincial highway 36. Dinosaur Provincial Park is located northeast of Brooks at the end of Provincial secondary highway 210. We will be stopping for a comfort break at Bassano and lunch will be provided in Brooks. Time and weather permitting we will visit the Brooks Aqueduct prior to lunch. The total outbound drive is 297.14

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kilometres with an estimated driving time of 3 hours 34 minutes, one-way without the stops. From Dinosaur Park we will return directly to Calgary.

Field Trip Safety and Protocols:

We want this to be a pleasant and safe trip for all. It is our plan to be back in Calgary prior to 7 p.m. Friday evening. We will be travelling as a large group on highways and roadways. Please conduct yourself in a safe and prudent manner at all times. Some corporations have very strict HSE&C policies so we request that no intoxicants be consumed or used during the trip. Follow the instructions of the Bus Driver and your Field Trip leaders. Remain seated when the bus is moving. Exercise prudence and care when boarding or alighting the bus as well as during other times during the trip. When in the field keep with the group (We have arranged for comfort stops during the trip, so please use them). Find a buddy or a group so that your whereabouts are known to others. Inform your leaders or the bus driver of issues or concerns should they arise. Dinosaur Provincial Park is a World Heritage Site and the removal or disturbance of many geological, archeological or biological materials from the Park is a strictly forbidden and punishable offense.

Stop A: Hotel Alma, University of Calgary

Administration at Stop A:

Field trip (Name Tags, Coffee and Muffins) check-in and embarkation point. Introduction to the geological setting of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, the stratigraphy of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway succession, and the Bow-South Saskatchewan Drainage Basin.

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Geological Setting and History of the Interior Platform Structural Province and the Cretaceous Interior Seaway succession:

The Phanerozoic stratigraphic succession of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin occurs in both the Cordilleran Structural Province Foreland thrust and fold belt and the Interior Platform structural province. Phanerozoic strata unconformably overlie the deeply eroded plutonic and metasedimentary successions of the Canadian Shield, a collage of Precambrian Terrains. The Phanerozoic succession is composed of several westwardly thickening sedimentary sequences that approximate the classical sequence defined by Larry Sloss.

Figure 2: Westerly thickening sedimentary successions of the WCSB, illustrated by the “Grand Cycles” of Middle Cambrian deposition (Aitken, 1978) which are interpreted to indicate the Fm. of a passive margin

on the Paleo-Pacific Ocean on the western side of North America in the Cambrian (Bond and Kominz, 1983), from Figure 8.3 from the AGS WCSB Atlas,

(http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/graphics/atlas/fg08_03.jpg)

The stratigraphic sequences are:

1. A Lower Cambrian to Silurian clastic and carbonate succession typified by “Grand Cycles” (Aitken, 19) that approximates the Sauk and Tippecanoe sequences the subsidence for which is linked to the Fm. of the Paleozoic passive margin on the North American side of the Paleo-pacific Ocean (Bond and Kominz, 1983).

2. A middle Devonian and Carboniferous predominantly carbonate succession that approximates Kaskaskia sequence which is linked to Ellesmerian and Antler orogenic processes related to locally little preserved and not well understood contraction on the Paleozoic Pacific Margin.

3. A commonly thin, but westwardly significant, Carboniferous to Lower Jurassic sequence of uncertain tectonic affinities that is equivalent to Absaroka sequence.

4. A predominantly coarse clastic Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous succession derived primarily from the impinging Cordilleran orogeny and which forms lower Tejas Sequence, but which

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drained northward to shorelines on a Boreal Ocean. This succession is locally know as the Foreland Basin of the Columbian orogeny

5. A predominantly fine clastic Lower Cretaceous to Paleocene succession, also derived from the Cordilleran orogeny, but which forms the Laramide Foreland Basin within the North American Cretaceous Interior Seaway, with connections to the open ocean through the Gulf of Mexico. The FRS is constructed in this succession. The FRS is constructed in the Bearpaw Fm. to Colorado Group succession. Stratigraphic relationships at the FRS are illustrated by section immediately west (right) of the deeply incised (Red Deer River Valley) part of Figure 3, while the section exposed at Dinosaur Park is that of the Oldman and Foremost Fm.’s in the same erosional feature.

Figure 3: Interior Platform Cretaceous Stratigraphy in WCSB (Figure 33.4 from AGS WCSB Atlas; http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/graphics/atlas/fg33_04.jpg).

Currently the Interior Platform Structural province is essentially coextensive with the Great Plain physiographic province. The preserved Phanerozoic succession is about 4 km thick below the University of Calgary and about 2.3 km thick near Brooks. It represents an uplifted, deeply eroded and glacially modified upland landscape that declines in elevation eastward from 1115 m at Hotel Alma to 712 m at Dinosaur Provincial Park. The low relief, localized erosional valleys and eastwardly lower elevations conceal a profound and westwardly increasing erosion interpreted primarily from near surface coal properties and subsurface coalification and organic maturity profiles. At Dinosaur Park the eroded thickness is estimated to be between 2-2.5 km, while on the eroded thickness on the west side of Calgary is estimated to be approximately 3.8 km. At the mountain front the eroded thickness is approximately 8 km, an interpretation constrained by stratigraphic relationships in the Flathead Graben.

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Stop B: Nose Hill Park Shaganappi Trail Parking Lot: Environmental Change in the Bow River Valley:

We begin the field trip on a bench on the north side of the Bow River Valley, which like the Red Deer River is a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River system that eventually drains into Hudson Bay. The Bow River Valley is an ancient feature, eroded into Paleocene Porcupine Hills Fm., predominantly sandstones, with various benches capped by poorly-dated younger gravels, some of which are inferred to be Miocene or possibly older, based on mammal remains (a camel scapula was found a couple of kilometres NW of campus).

Figure 4: Bow Valley Geological Setting at Calgary by T. Poulton GSC, (GSC Geoscape Calgary Poster http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/fulle.web&search1=R=213244 ;via http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1TEHC_silt-slump-slide?guid=17826a73-46d9-47a6-

b877-f1f7040fbe27)

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During the Last Glacial Maximum the Laurentide (Continental) and Cordilleran ice sheets meet just in the vicinity of the University, with important implications for groundwater composition at the FRS. As these ice sheets melted they impounded Glacial Lake Calgary (Figure 4), the deposits of which cap the prominent bench in the river valley just below the University to the west of the campus (Figure 5a). Paleomagnetic studies of these sediments by Prof. Rene Barendregt of University of Lethbridge finds much slumping and soft sediment deformation such that paleopole directions are not discernable.

Figures 5a and b: a) Glacial Lake Calgary Sediments west of the University of Calgary Campus and b) Mazama Ash, ~7700 B.P., which is found in the banks of the Bow River immediately south of Figure 5a and in Fish Creek

Provincial Park, in the south end of the city.

The Mazama Ash layer, dated at ~7700 B.P. is found near the current level of the Bow River in several places around Calgary. It is the result of a major eruption at the location of Crater Lake Oregon, and it represents one of the catastrophic contributors to the Southern Alberta landscape.

During the Drive from Calgary to Bassano: The Palliser Triangle:

The Palliser Triangle is a vast region of primarily mixed grassland that was named after Captain John Palliser who led a Canadian Government exploratory expedition into the Canadian west between 1857 and 1859. The area is a semi-arid steppe within the Great Plains of North America that extends south into the United States of America. The Palliser Triangle coincides with a brown soil region that is nutrient-rich.

Palliser, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, used to the verdant vegetation of Ireland visited the region during a period of intense aridity. He inferred, due to the aridity (several dune fields occur in the region), lack of trees and lack of year-round first nations encampments that the region was climatically unsuitable for agriculture. Macoun, later Secretary of the Interior, subsequently visited the area during an interval of higher precipitation and proclaimed it the ideal site for agricultural settlement. Neither was correct, as they both visited for short periods at times of extreme differences in preciptation.

Currently it produces about half of the agricultural production of Canada, often with the aid of irrigation. The head works of a major irrigation project occurs here at Bassano, which is part of the Eastern Irrigation District (EID).

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Figure 6: Palliser Triangle as variously defined (figure source Wikipedia).

The EID is one of thirteen Alberta irrigation districts established by the Irrigation Districts Act. The EID, a farmer owned and operated corporation, covers 1.5 million acres, which is than larger than Prince Edward Island, a Canadian Province. The Red Deer River forms its northeast boundary and the Bow River its southwest boundary. The EID includes over 285,000 acres of irrigated cropland, 600,000 acres of prairie grasslands owned by the EID, with the remainder being non-irrigated cropland, privately owned grasslands and three Provincial Parks (Kinbrook Island Provincial Park, Tillebrook Provincial Park and Dinosaur Provincial Park). The EID has the largest land base and the second largest number of irrigated acres among the Alberta irrigation districts.

Palliser Triangle Surface Air and Ground Temperature warming trends:

If atmospheric warming is the sole source of Ground Surface Temperature (GST) warming then GST warming should correlate Surface Air Temperature (SAT) warming trends. Modelling results of precision temperature logs made to depths of up to several hundred meters in numerous wells show evidence of average GST warming of up to 2.1 K (standard deviation = 0.9 K) mostly in the second half of this century. In general grassland sites within the Palliser Triangle show slightly low SAT warming, ~1.0, but SAT and GST warming estimates are either correlated or close to agreement. The largest departures occur in regions of greater agricultural activity although, in general, the inferred GST warming in the Palliser Triangle is higher than the observed SAT warming. This suggests that processes other than climate change are contributing to GST warming. Skinner and Majorowicz (1999) suggested that the GST increase is mainly climate related, but that it is also partly related to anthropogenic land surface changes leading to surface drying as a result of settlement, agricultural and industrial activities since precipitation changes for the same time period were small (Mekis and Hogg, 1995).

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Figure 7: Comparison of observations for 22 wells in the Canadian Prairies (Curve A) (error bars show 1 standard deviation) versus modeled shallow borehole temperature as a function of depth for surface climatic forcing of

1.4°C warming from 1900-1999, for both the north-western boreal forest climate region (Curve B) and 1.0°C for Canada (Curves C). The analysis illustrates the anomalous Ground Surface Temperature Warming attributed to

human impacts on the landscape (i.e. cultivation, construction, etc.).

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(c)

GST Change minus SAT Change (°C)

2.0 - 2.5 1.5 - 2.0 1.0 - 1.5 0.5 - 1.0 0.0 - 0.5

-0.5 - 0.0 -1.0 - -0.5

1000 km

Figure 8: Difference between Ground Surface and Surface Air temperature changes 1900-199 (Skinner and

Majorowicz, 1999).

Stop C: Comfort Stop at Emme’s Esso Station, Bassano Alberta, The Palliser Triangle

In June 2013 an intense stationary rainstorm on a thicker than normal snowpack in the Front Range and foothills resulted a major flooding event on several southern Alberta Rivers (Figure 9, 10). Downtown Calgary which sits at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers was flooded, as were several other municipalities and first nations communities. Neither the flood nor its severity were unknown to Calgary and southern Alberta. It is tempting but probably mistaken to blame the event directly on changing climate, as a more severe flood is inferred to have occurred in 1897 and comparable events occurred in 1902 and 1932, which begs the question whether the 2013 flood was the 100 year event, as it is typically described.

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Figure 9: Eastern Irrigation District Bassano Dam during the 2013 Flood.

As devastating as the floods were they are not considered, by some, to the key issue related to climate change in the Bow and South Saskatchewan River basins. It is more likely that drought and water shortage will be the primary effect of climate change to which the growing population of southern Alberta will have to adapt.

Figure 10: Downtown Calgary during the 2013 Flood (http://blog.connexuscommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Calgary-flood-500x281.jpg).

A Geological Survey of Canada Study (Chen et al., 2006) found that rapid population growth and a warming climate trend raise concerns about sustainable water supply. They analyzed historic climate, stream flow and population data to develop models of future climate trends and river-water resource availability. The Bow River flow is composed of two components, a small component (~10%) related to glacial meltwater sources and the majority of the flow which varies episodically in response to a number of cyclical variations in precipitation related to both climate (>30 years) and weather (< 30 year) cycles. Forward models of water resource inputs indicated

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that the last contributions of glacial ice end about 2060, when the natural cyclicity of river flow is also expected to be at a nadir. This anticipated low-point in water resource availability coincides with an anticipated doubling of Calgary’s population. To maintain sustainable growth they recommended Calgary require water conservation efforts that reduce per capita water to less than half of the current level over the next 60 years. The city made water metering mandatory following the study. Future droughts could be amplified by Alberta’s system of surface water allocation, which provides for the last allotments awarded to be dropped rather than pro-rating shortages among users. During previous droughts in the 1980’s civic water supplies were maintained only because of voluntary restrictions accepted by irrigation districts.

Stop D: Field Research Station Newell County

The Purpose and Opportunities for CMC’s Newell County Field Research Station:

FRS (Figure 11) addresses a need to better characterize containment risks in both natural and engineered systems. Loss of containment impacts the environment whether this is on the surface or in the subsurface, and it may lead to delays in resource production or loss of efficacy of fluid disposal. The issues surrounding containment are applicable to many industries, subsurface issues and industrial interventions (steam chambers for example) as well as regulators. Effective monitoring technologies and integrated monitoring systems are thus becoming critically important to many sectors in the petroleum industry.

The FRS was constructed by CMC’s Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) in conjunction with the University of Calgary, its JIP partners including Shell, and other collaborators in Newell County southwest of Brooks, Alberta, Canada on a 2.5 km2 site provided by generously Cenovus Energy. The FRS will operate for at least 10 years. The objectives of the initial research program include the assessment of monitoring systems sensitivities for early detection of loss of conformance and the mapping of temporal changes in cap rock properties that may lead to loss of containment of the injected CO2. The purpose of the site is to develop and test monitoring technologies that characterize subsurface conformance and containment, specifically for gaseous carbon dioxide, such that it complements test CO2 storage repositories like Shell Quest (Shell, 2016, Rock et al., 2015, Rock, 2013) and Aquistor (Aquistor, 2016, Rostron et al., 2014). The site is currently in its primary construction stage and both the initial injection well (10-22-17-16W4, 550 m KB) and two 350 m deep monitoring wells and three water wells all <90 m deep have been constructed on the site using both CMC and Western Economic Diversification funding.

Unlike offshore CO2 storage, where the critical barrier is the sea floor, it is necessary to protect groundwater resources overlying terrestrial CO2 storage sites. The shallow depth of the FRS has two important implications. First CO2 will be in gas phase and the injected CO2 plume should be more easily detected than would be dense phase or super critical CO2, which is the case at both Quest and Aquistore. The shallow injection zone (~300 m) is situated below the base of groundwater protection (~200 m), which provides an unmatched opportunity to potentially study shallow ground water interactions in the intermediate groundwater zone (~150-300 m) and to understand if both the groundwater and CO2 plume can be sufficiently well monitored to ensure that the injected plume does not interact with the groundwater protection interval. Note, FRS operations are at depths similar to those of SAGD operations in the Athabasca region.

The FRS provides Canadian and international industries, regulators, governments and academics with a unique technology development and demonstration opportunity with excellent leverage. CMC and its funding partners, including Western Economic Diversification, are bearing most of the infrastructure and capital costs (~$9 million of a total of >$14 million). The FRS has already attracted international attention as an advanced and promising shallow terrestrial subsurface and surface technology test site. A highly diverse array of surface and subsurface geophysical and geochemical monitoring and characterization technologies are and will deployed at the site. This

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provides a globally unparalleled opportunity for both assessing and improving the monitoring potential of existing technologies, but it also provides a well characterized setting to test new and innovative monitoring technologies. The broad value proposition for the FRS is that not only will the research undertaken enhance monitoring capabilities for CCS, but it will be valuable for the calibration and performance verification of monitoring technologies for other subsurface programs with applications for conventional and unconventional petroleum activities including, in situ oil sands production operations and “shale” and tight petroleum reservoir stimulation with relevance for storage complex performance and cap rock integrity.

Figure 11: Stop D, the CMC Newell County Field Research Station (FRS). FRS lies in parts of sections 22 and 27 in Township 017, Range 16 west of the 4th meridian, south and east of Provincial Highway 539, immediately west of where it crosses a the EID canal that empties into the Kitsam Reservoir, about 8.4 km west of the junction of Highways 36 and 539. The surface and mineral freehold tenure is owned by Cenovus Energy Inc. of Calgary Alberta, which has a corporate lineage that begins with the Canadian Pacific Railway. The freehold tenure is part of the original railway land grant from the Government of Canada. The site, which covers slightly more than 2.5 km2, was made available to CMC Research Institutes by agreement with Cenovus Energy Inc.

Field Research Station Geological and SCS Setting:

The Phanerozoic succession at FRS is constrained by several nearby wells and much seismic data. The 07-22-017-16W4 well, a Lower Cretaceous Viking Fm. gas producer, the wellhead and facilities of which are visible to the south of the 10-22 location in the centre of the FRS. At FRS the Phanerozoic stratigraphic succession is approximately 2.3 km thick area and it is typical of southern Alberta. The Sub-Jurassic, or pre-Foreland Basin succession is approximately 1.2 km thick. It is composed primarily of Paleozoic carbonate and evaporate strata,

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some of the latter of which are locally dissolved, resulting in salt-dissolution structures that primarily affect the Paleozoic succession. The overlying Jurassic and Cretaceous clastic Foreland Basin succession that contain potential CO2 storage complexes for FRS experiments is about 1.1 km thick. The entire succession, which is nearly flat-lying, dips very slightly to northwest away from the crest of the Bow Island Arch. Recently CMC has obtained its own 3D seismic survey over FRS, which has resulted in an improved data set that serves as the basis for both modelling the FRS subsurface and which will be the baseline survey for subsurface changes that accompany FRS CO2 injections and other experiments.

All FRS wells are drilled and completed in a typical Upper Cretaceous succession for southeastern Alberta (Glombick, 2010a,b; 2011a,b; 2014a,b; Glombick and Mumpy, 2014a,b). FRS lies at the eastern edge of the Bow City coalfield north of Bow River (Beitz, 2009). The Countess 10-22 well (100/10-22-017-16W4/00, KB 784.2 m, GL 779.4 m, TD 550 m in Medicine Hat Fm.) lies just east of the erosional edge of the Bearpaw Shale and FRS wells encounter Lethbridge C.Z., Dinosaur Park Fm at the bedrock surface. The eroded top of Dinosaur Park Fm. is unconformably overlain by a granitic granule lag at the base of Holocene glacial fluvial sediments and soils. Bearpaw Fm. shales outcrop on the north side of the Bow River 2 km downstream of Bow City. Dinosaur Park Fm. crops out in Dinosaur Provincial Park in the Red Deer River valley NE of Brooks.

Table 1: Stratigraphic succession (tops m in the 10-22 hole, depth below KB):

• Colorado Gp., Medicine Hat Fm. (482.4 m, other coarsening upward cycle tops at 494.5 m and 503.0 m)

• Colorado Gp., First White Speckled Shale (444.0 m) • lower Lea Park Fm. Alderson Mbr./Milk River shoulder (363.0 m) • upper Lea Park Fm./Pakowki Mbr. (301.65 m) • Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm., Brosseau Mbr. (basal Belly River sst., 295.65 m) • Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm., MacKay coal zone (C.Z.) (271.5 m) • Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm., base Taber C.Z. (160 m) • Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm., top Taber C.Z. (157 m) • Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm., Herronton sandstone mbr.? (143-149 m) • Foremost Fm. (143 m) • Oldman Fm. (99 m) • Dinosaur Park Fm., sandy zone (46 m) • Dinosaur Park Fm., Lethbridge C.Z. base (41.5 m) • Dinosaur Park Fm., Lethbridge C.Z. top (29.5 m) • Dinosaur Park Fm./Bedrock Surface (29.5 m) • Pleistocene and Holocene (4.9 m KB)

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Ground level (soils and till) Belly River Gp., Dinosaur Park Fm. Lethbridge coal zone

Belly River Gp., Oldman Fm.

Belly River Gp., Foremost Fm. Herronton sandstone mbr.

Foremost Fm. Taber coal zone

Foremost Fm. Mackay coal zone

Foremost Fm. Brosseau Mbr. (basal Belly River sst., injection zone) Upper Lea Park Fm. Alderson Mbr./Pakowki shale

Colorado Gp. 1st WWSh.

Medicine Hat Fm.

500 m(kb)

400 m(kb)

300 m(kb)

200 m(kb)

100 m(kb)

0 m(kb)

Figure 12: Stratigraphic Succession in the CMCRI Countess #1 Well (10-22-17-16W4, kb 784.5 m)

Lower Lea Park Fm./ Milk River siltstone

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Figure 13: Medicine Hat Fm. core in the 10-22 well.

Figure 14: Contact between Brosseau Mbr. Foremost Fm. and Pakowki Mbr., Lea Park Fm. (301.65 m)

Figure 15: MacKay C.Z., Foremost Fm. in the 10-22 well.

Brosseau Mbr., Foremost Fm. (Figure 14): Glombick (2014a) re-introduced Brosseau Mbr. to describe the distinct, commonly massive to plane or low angle cross-bedded sandstone at the base of Foremost Fm. Belly River Gp., although this term was previously employed for regions west of the 5th Meridian, where the Brosseau Mbr. is composed of up to three vertically stacked allostratigraphic shoreface parasequence sets. In the 10-22 well, the Brosseau Mbr., or basal shoreface sandstone in the Foremost Fm., also commonly referred to as the basal Belly River sandstone (informal), predominantly medium sandstone, occurs a single allostratigraphic unit occurring between 301.65 and 295.65 m in the 10-22 well. Glombick (2014a) typically picks the base of the Brosseau Mbr. Foremost Fm. in Twp 17-Rge 16W4, on average about 40 metres shallower, than that indicated by cored interval in the 10-22 well. In the 10-22 well the contact between the Brosseau Mbr. Formost Fm. and the overlying MacKay C.Z., Foremost Fm. Is easily identified. MacKay C.Z. seals the basal Belly River Gp. Injection zone.

MacKay C.Z., Foremost Fm. (Figure 15): Brosseau Mbr., Foremost Fm. is directly overlain by mudstones, coals and fine sandstones of the MacKay C.Z., potential seal for the upper injection zone, the top of which occurs on top of the last cored coal at 264.16 m. Between 264.16 m and 230.0 m the Foremost Fm. has a suppressed gamma ray log that suggests either a predominance of siltstones and mudstones or that the sandstones in the succession are thinly bedded and not well resolved by the logging tool. Regardless it suggests that the Foremost Fm. immediately above the MacKay C.Z. is either predominantly fine grained or “tight” across an interval of approximately 34 m.

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Reservoir Models for the Shallow Injection Zone:

Figure 16a (above): Injection program gas saturation models and Figure 16b (below): anticipated seismic signatures of the injected CO2 plume.

A five year injection program has been extensively modelled both for the D-65 application, but also as a benchmark for the monitoring program. The results of the reservoir modelling were used to model the

anticipated response of the reservoir for seismic monitoring.

Gas Saturation of the first scenario, BHP = X.X MPa, T=X.XC, BBRS limits added as white lines. 1 year of 5 years of

1 year post-closure

1 year after injection 5 years after injection

5 years post-closure

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Monitoring Well Construction:

There are two 350 m deep monitoring wells located along the dip azimuth on either side of the injection well. These are augmented by three water wells, one constructed like a domestic well, another constructed and completed with a Westbay Multilevel Sampling system and the third, beside the domestic well that we hope to complete with a G360 multilevel sampling system.

Figure 17: FRS site lay out.

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The northeast monitoring well is instrumented extensively for geochemical sampling including a U-tube sample, on the outside of the casing. It is completed with steel casing and a lower sandpacked section that is cemented in from the first shale above the injection zone. The southwest monitoring well is

Figure 18a (left) : Completion diagram of the steel casing, geochemical monitoring well. Figure 18b (right): Completion diagram of the fiberglass casing, geophysical monitoring well.

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Figure 19: ERT Cable and Helically wound acoustical fiber cable (Shell patented technology) in the 1 Km long trench.

Table 1: Groundwater Monitoring Wells

Well ID

Total Depth (m below ground surface)

Locations Casing/Well Construction

Approximate Water level

Instrumentations Purpose

DW-1

67.1 Latitude: 50.4489 Longitude: -112.1221833 Elevation: 774 (surveyed using handheld GPS)

0-28 m stainless steel surface casing (OD: 6”, ID: 5.6”) 23.5-47.9 m: perforated PVC casing (OD:5”, 4.7”) 47.9-67.1 m: open borehole casing stick up: 0.97 m

12.45 m below top of casing

Submersible Pump – Franklin J Class (manufactured by Franklin Electric) Pump rate- ~20 gallon/ minute, ½ hp, 120 volt

Groundwater monitoring well using a domestic well design Monthly/bi-monthly sampled

ML-3

108.2 WGS84, UTM Zone 12 N 5589270.0 m E 420471.4 m EL 779.7 m (elevation of ground surface above ellipsoid)

0-27.7m: stainless steel surface casing (OD: 8 5/8”) 27.7-108.2m: open borehole (6.75” diameter) casing stick up: 0.93 m

11.88 m below ground surface

Westbay multilevel system

Multilevel groundwater monitoring – sample collection and hydraulic head will be

LAT 50° 27' 0.1553" N LON 112° 07' 12.7203" W (surveyed by CMC)

measured periodically

ML-2

85.3 Latitude: 50.44886667 Longitude: -112.1220333 Elevation: 777 (surveyed using handheld GPS)

0-26.2m stainless steel surface casing (OD: 10.75”) 24.4-45.1 m: perforated PVC casing (top is flared out) (OD: 8.63” ID: 8.4”) 45.11-85.3 m: open borehole (7.88” diameter) Surface casing stick up: 0.98m

13.3 m below top of casing

Transducer and barometer

Will be outfitted with a G360 multilevel system to monitor groundwater

ML-1

106.3 Latitude: 50.44998333 Longitude: -112.1202167 Elevation: 775 (surveyed using handheld GPS)

0-27m: Stainless steel surface casing (OD:7 2/3”, ID: 6.5”) 27-39.3m: perforated casing (OD:7 2/3”, ID: 6.5”) 39.3-106.3m: open borehole (5” diameter) Surface casing stick up: 0.51 m

12.90 m None Abandoned

THE QUEST PROJECT - CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

In September 2012, Shell, on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (Shell Canada Energy, Chevron Canada Limited, Marathon Oil Canada Corporation), announced that it was proceeding to construct the Quest Carbon Capture and Storage project as a technology that will play a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Funding support from the Government of Alberta, Department of Energy and the Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada is gratefully acknowledged and made Quest a reality.

Fun facts about Quest:

• Will capture more than one million tonnes of CO2 per year from the Scotford oil sands bitumen Upgrader located near Edmonton, Alberta

• Will reduce direct CO2 emissions from the Upgrader by up to 35% (this is the equivalent of taking about 250,000 cars off the road)

• Is a fully integrated CCS project, as it involves the capture/transport/injection/storage of CO2, and a Measurement, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) program

• CO2 injection started in August 2015 • Commercial operation achieved in September 2015

Background information on Scotford:

• Scotford consists of three facilities: • Refinery (opened in 1984) • Chemicals plants (Styrene in 1984 and Glycols in 2000) • Upgrader (opened in 2003 and expanded in 2011) • Approximately1,300 Shell employees

Quest capture facility:

• CO2 source is the Scotford Upgrader – a facility that upgrades bitumen to synthetic crude • CO2 captured from Hydrogen Manufacturing Unit using Shell Cansolv amine technology • All modules on site July 2014, with final mechanical completion in February 2015 • Captures 1 million tonnes per year (1/3 of the CO2 emissions from the Upgrader)

Radway Injection well pad - storage site:

• Storage Complex: o Reservoir: Basal Cambrian Sands (17% porosity, 1000 mD permeability) at a depth of

2000 m o Seals: Middle Cambrian Shale and Lotsberg Salts

• Storage Facility consists of 3 well pads: • Each pad has 1 injection well, 1 deep monitoring well and multiple shallow ground water wells • Conventional drilling methods • Multiple steel casings for injection wells, 3 in freshwater zone, all cemented to surface • Comprehensive MMV program

For further information on Quest please refer to: http://www.energy.alberta.ca/CCS/3845.asp ; http://www.shell.ca/can/en_ca/about-us/projects-and-sites/quest-carbon-capture-and-storage- project.html ; or “The Quest CCS Project: 1st Year Review Post Start of Injection”, Energy Procedia, DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1654.

Bow City Impact Structure

Approximately 18 km west of FRS is the Bow City structure (Figure 20):, with a center at approximately 50.45 N and 112.36 E (Glombick et al., 2014). The structure is interpreted as an impact a crater which is conservatively estimated to have a diameter of approximately 8 km and a preserved central uplift of ~200 m that results in an inlier of Dinosaur Park Formation about 18 km west of the overlying Bearpaw Formation erosional edge. A crater of similar diameter would be expected to exhibit central uplift of ~725 m. Neither a transient crater, nor crater fill sediments are preserved and this is interpreted to indicate a significant erosion of the structure since the impact event, which is consistent with the erosional estimates obtained from other sources. As a result, event age is poorly constrained to be between about age of the youngest deformed sediments, ~73 Ma, and the glacial tills that are undisturbed (ibid.).

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Figure 20: Bow City Impact Crater

Stop E: EID Canal/Brooks Aqueduct: Issues of Groundwater Quality, Irrigation and Salinity in Newell County:

Time permitting we will make a trip to the EID Canal west of the Brooks Aqueduct prior to going to lunch in Brooks. As mentioned above, the Eastern Irrigation District, like Cenovus Energy Inc., is a corporate successor of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. Ltd (CPR), who began irrigation projects in the early 1900’s as a means of improving and thereby profiting from their land grants from Government of Canada that were awarded for the completion of the transcontinental railways. Irrigated lands would attract settlers/passengers and farms would generate crops and livestock to be shipped to continental and export markets. Construction of the system began in 1910 with the irrigation beginning in 1914. A similar philosophy for business development contributed to the Canadian National Park System, where passengers would also reside in the Grand CP Hotels, such as the Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise. Although the irrigation-based concept of settlement and crop transportation was initially successful the operating costs were something that the CPR wished to exit from. In 1935 a delegation of irrigation farmers negotiated a deal with the CPR to take over control of the project, which was the beginning of the Eastern Irrigation District, which the irrigator have operated under various provincial statues subsequently. Both Lake Newell, from which the Brooks Aqueduct was sourced and the Kitsam Reservoir immediately east of FRS are EID reservoirs.

Figure 21: The Brooks Aqueduct National Historic Site.

The Brooks Aqueduct, now replaced by an elevated canal was constructed by the CPR irrigation division during the 1910s. The main section of the aqueduct spans a 3.2 km depression at ~20 metres elevation. It operated for about 30 years and supplied 25.5 m3/sec (900 ft3/sec) of water. It is now a National Historic Site located about 8 km south of Brooks.

Due to its aridity and history of significant climate and environmental variations the Palliser Triangle is considered to one of the most susceptible regions to a changing climate. Models project significant changes including higher average temperatures, a 4 m lowering of the groundwater level, increased wind erosion and associated effects (Lemmen et al., 1997). Some indication of potential impacts are illustrated by the 1988 drought, when temperatures were 2-4o C below the 30 year mean and precipitation was half the average value for the 30 years prior to 1980. In Saskatchewan alone wheat production declined 29% contributing to a $1.5 Billion drop in farm income (Wheaton and Arthur, 1989). Combined with additional population growth in the Prairie cities and their increasing water demand that was mentioned previously, the Palliser Triangle is vulnerable to a number of climate factors. It is questionable if groundwater resources, which are not intensively developed are sufficient in both quality and quantity to sufficient augment the anticipated future demand.

In southern Newell County groundwater use is limited, probably in significant part due to water quality issues. All of the FRS’s neighbours truck water to their farms and ranches due to water quality issues. While this may be beneficial for FRS experimentation and stakeholder relations is indicates the sensitivity in Palliser Triangle to Climate Change and adaptations. The entire Palliser Triangle is susceptible to drought, and In general Newell County groundwater is brackish (1,000-3,500 mg/L TDS)

and many have Na-SO4 groundwater. Hence the reliance on surface water is largely attributed issues of ground water chemistry that are inferred to be a legacy of the glacial history and bedrock geology. Grasby et al. (2014) showed how groundwater chemistry follows the Laurentide/Cordillera till boundary due to dominance of depression focused recharge. Poor water quality, specifically groundwater high in TDS, alkalinity and SO4, occur generally in regions glaciated by the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

Figure 22 a and b: Map of high sulphate in groundwater (a), most locations of which lie east of Calgary and within the region covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The sulphate rich waters also have isotopic compositions (b) consistent with sulphide oxidation which is inferred to result from the combination of depression focused recharge and Laurentide Till mineralogies. (From Grasby et al., 2014)

As in other irrigated areas surface and soil salinity are issues. 2,132 visible saline areas occur in Newell County covering a combined area of 9 186 ha (22 689 ac) or about 1.5% of the County (Kwiatkowski and King, 1998). The lands surrounding visible saline seeps may have saline subsoils, resulting in a greater salinity risk and it is inferred that salinity control practices could benefit crop yields over a larger region than that occupied by the visible seeps. The study found no evidence of slough ring salinity but did identify seven other types of salinity. Among these natural irrigation salinity is the largest by area (41.1%), followed by irrigation canal seepage salinity (34.2%), depression bottom salinity (21.2%), coulee bottom salinity (2.8%), contact/slope change salinity (0.6%), outcrop salinity (0.1%), and artesian salinity (0.01%).

Stop F Brooks Area: Lunch

Stop G: Dinosaur Provincial Park Overlook

Figure 23: Dinosaur Provincial Park overlook (http://www.albertaparks.ca/dinosaur.aspx)

The Oldman and Dinosaur Park Formations in Dinosaur Provincial Park:

The parts of the coarse clastic Campanian stratigraphic succession that overlie the Foremost Fm. But which directly underlie the FRS site below the Bearpaw Shale are exposed in the Red Deer River Valley at Dinosaur Provincial Park. (Descriptions and Figures below are copied from Eberth and Evans, 2011). Oldman Formation (OFm) comprises a southwest-thickening unit made up of light colored alluvial sandstones and mudstones that were first referred to as the “Pale Beds” by Dowling (1916, 1917). It conformably overlies the Herronton sandstone zone at the top of the Foremost but is disconformably overlain by the Dinosaur Park Formation (Eberth and Hamblin 1993; Hamblin 1997a). Oldman Fm. sandstones are distinguished from Herronton sandstone zone and overlying Dinosaur Park formation by their greater mature, large quartz/chert ratios (1.5-7.5), and relatively small plagioclase/k-spar ratios (0.2-2.75). Sandstones are typically very fine-to-fine grained, contain no extraformational pebbles or cobbles, and crop out as yellow, steep-faced and blocky surfaces. Ironstone staining and concretionary development are pervasive. It is easily recognized in well logs by a strong increase in the gamma signature, most probably caused by an increase in the potassium-rich feldspars. It records the maximum basinward extent of Belly River Group non-marine clastics and thus, a maximum late Campanian drop in relative sea level that most likely corresponds to the eustatic drop proposed by Haq et al. (1988) at 77.5 Ma.

Coarse and fine lithofacies of the OFm are complexly interbedded and laterally limited, exhibiting a range of grain sizes that make distinct, fine-and coarse-member divisions difficult in both outcrop and well logs. Sandstone bodies range from single to multistoried forms, up to 10 m thick, and typically comprise channel and splay sandstones with local occurrences of intraformational pebbles associated with erosional surfaces and scours.

Figure 24: Campanian stratigraphic succession exposed in Dinosaur Provincial Park and underlying units (from Eberth and Evans, 2011).

Upward fining trends are poorly developed but thinning-upward sets are common. Lateral variation in grain-size and sedimentary structures is common. Palaeocurrent data from scours, trough cross-beds,

and ripple lamination show an ENE, unimodal direction of flow (Eberth and Hamblin 1993). Thin beds of heterogeneous sand-, silt- and claystone, and reddish carbonaceous shale dominate fine-grained facies. Mudstones are less than 1 m thick and not traceable for more than 200 m.

Overlying Dinosaur Park Formation (DPFm) is a sandy-to-muddy, northwestward-thickening unit comprising alluvial, estuarine and paralic facies. It consists of a lower sandy zone made up of alluvial palaeochannel deposits and an upper muddy, overbank-facies-dominated succession that culminates in the Lethbridge coal zone. It rests sharply and disconformably on the OFm and interfingers with brackish and marine shales of the overlying Bearpaw Formation. The Dinosaur Park-Bearpaw contact in Dinosaur Provincial Park is placed at the uppermost contact of a red-tan colored transgressive lag deposit on tabular beds of coastal plain sandstone and siltstone. The DPFm was deposited during the initial stages of the last major transgression of the Western Interior Seaway (Bearpaw Sea) in southern Alberta, and records the overall transgressive phase of the Belly River Group. DPFm sediments are grey, brown and green compared to the more light colored sediments of the OFm. Petrographically, DPFm sandstones are muddy and immature with very low quartz/chert ratios, very high proportions of volcanic rock fragments, and consistently high plagioclase/k-spar ratios. Sandstones crop out as rounded, highly-rilled surfaces and are easily distinguished from the blocky and smooth-surfaced OFm sandstones. Discrete beds of coarse versus fine grained sediment are more easily distinguished in the DPFm than in the OFm. In general, there is an increase in sandstone grain size from very fine and fine-grained sandstone to fine and medium-grained sandstone upward across the OFm-DPFm contact. Syndepositional ironstones are common throughout the DPFm.

Figure 25: Lethbridge Coal Zone sample from Bow City Mines.

The Lethbridge Coal Zone (LCZ) forms the upper 15 m of the Dinosaur Park Formation. This interval also includes a variety of facies types not present in the lower strata: The most common are (1) lignitic to sub-bituminous coal beds that are <1m thick, and (2) U-shaped, mudstone-filled incised valleys (Eberth 1996). In any given vertical section through the LCZ, up to four coal beds are present. Overall, this interval indicates that extensive peat swamps were common along DPFm shorelines, and that high

frequency changes in sea-level resulted in frequent episodes of channel incision and infilling/flooding by brackish to marine water.

The Lethbridge Coal Zone occurs extensively in the region of the FRS and a mine and thermal coal-fired power plant was proposed for construction in the area between Bow City and FRS. Historically coal was mined at Bow City in the early part of the last century. Bow City, now a ghost town was incorporated in 1914, so this year marks its centenary. Coal was mined at Bow City (referred to as the Brooks deposit in the WCSB Atlas) both from Lethbridge coal zone using surface pits (the remnants of which are still visible at Bow City) north of the Bow River and underground south of the Bow River.

The planned new Bow City Power mine-mouth thermal power facility would in some ways have been typical of other Alberta mine-mouth power projects, such as the large plant at Sheerness, which is where the power lines we seen along highway 36 begin. The planned project was for two 500 MW ( gross) supercritical pulverized coal power generation units fuelled by a 4.1 million t/yr. surface coal mine, with an estimated 80 year coal reserve. The project was notably different form other Alberta mine-mouth power projects in that it proposed to construct a post-combustion carbon capture unit that its promoter touted would result in a CO2 emission intensity roughly 20% less than conventional subcritical power plants and that 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 would be captured and sequestered annually.

Stops H and I: Dinosaur Provincial Park Interpretation Centre and Outdoor Exhibits

The Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation is a famous source of Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils. We will proceed to the Park Interpretive Centre where you have an opportunity to visit the self -guided exhibits (admission is included). Time and weather permitting we will make a short trip to visit one of the outdoor exhibits that is located a short drive from the interpretive Centre. From there we will return to Calgary. Thanks for your participation in the Field Trip today and your interest in the Newell County FRS. You can contact any of the FRS staff for further information regarding the FRS and CMC programs.

Select References:

Aquistor, 2016, http://aquistore.ca/, accessed March 1st, 2016.

Bietz, B. F., 2009. The Bow City Power Experience, CERI 2009 Electricity Conference, Calgary, October 20, 2009, http://www.bowcitypower.ca/pdf/CERI_Presentation_20Oct09.pdf, Accessed March 1st, 2016, with speaking notes http://www.bowcitypower.ca/pdf/CERI_Speaking_Notes_20Oct09.pdf, Accessed March 1st, 2016.

Glombick, P.M., 2010a. Top of the Belly River Gp. in the Alberta Plains: Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks and Modelled Surface OFR 2010-10 (17.18 MB) Last modified: June 12, 2013

Glombick, P.M., 2010b. Top of the Belly River Gp. in the Alberta Plains: Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks and Modelled Surface Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey Digital InFm. Series DIG 2010-0022 (tabular data, tab delimited format, to accompany Open File Report 2010-10) (0.20 MB).

Glombick, P.M., 2011a. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Top of the Oldman Fm. (Base of Dinosaur Park Fm.), Alberta Plains. Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey. OFR 2011-13 (18.94 MB).

Glombick, P.M., 2011b. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Top of the Oldman Fm. (Base of Dinosaur Park Fm.), Alberta Plains. Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey Digital InFm. Series DIG 2011-0006 (tabular data, tab-delimited format, to accompany Open File Report 2011-13) (0.27 MB)

Glombick, P.M., 2014a. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Belly River Gp./Lea Park Fm. Transition in East-Central Alberta, Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey Digital InFm. Series DIG 2013-0031 (tabular data, tab delimited format) (0.28 MB)

Glombick, P.M., 2014b. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Top of the Foremost Fm. (Belly River Gp.), Alberta Plains. Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey Digital InFm. Series DIG 2013-0030 (tabular data, tab delimited format) (0.30 MB).

Glombick, P.M.; Mumpy, A.J., 2014a. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Top of the Milk River 'shoulder', Alberta Plains. Alberta Energy Regulator Alberta Geological Survey Digital InFm. Series DIG 2013-0025 (tabular data, tab delimited format, to accompany Open File Report 2013-17) (0.64 MB).

Glombick, P.M.; Mumpy, A.J., 2014b. Subsurface Stratigraphic Picks for the Milk River 'Shoulder', Alberta Plains: Including Tops for the Milk River Fm. and Alderson Mbr. of the Lea Park Fm. OFR 2013-17 (15.99 MB)

Rock, L., 2013. The Uniqueness of Data Gathering during Drilling at a CCS Project Site –Example QUEST (abs.), Geoconvention 2013, Integration: geoscience, engineering, partnerships., http://www.geoconvention.com/archives/2013/174_GC2013_The_Uniqueness_of_Data_Gathering.pdf, accessed March 1st, 2016.

Rock, L., Brydie, J., Jones, D., Jones, J.-P., Perkin, E., Taylor, E., 2015. Methodology to assessgroundwater quality during CO2injection at the Quest CCS project (abs.), Geoconvention 2015, Geoscience New Horizons. http://www.geoconvention.com/archives/2015/353_GC2015_Methodology_to_assess_groundwater_quality.pdf, accessed March 1st, 2016.

Rostron, B., White, D., Hawkes, C., Chalaturnyk, R., 2014. Characterization of the Aquistore CO2 project storage site, Saskatchewan, Canada, Energy Procedia, Volume 63, Pages 2977-2984. Shell. 2016: http://www.shell.ca/en/aboutshell/our-business-tpkg/upstream/oil-sands/quest/technology.html, accessed March 1st, 2016.

Key Contacts:

Dr. Don Lawton, Institute Director, CMC.CaMI, 403 210 6671 / don.lawton@cmcghg.com Website: http://cmcghg.com

Mr. Kirk Osadetz, Manager Programs Development, CMC.CaMI, 403 210 7767 / kirk.osadetz@cmcghg.com;

Dr. Luc Rock, Shell Canada Ltd., luc.rock@shell.com