Petroleum hydrogeology of the Nisku Aquifer in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (Alberta, British Columbia)

In northern Alberta and British Columbia, as well as the Karr basin in central Alberta, underpressuring drives flow inward, and also steering the oil driving forces into those potentiometric minima. In west central and south central Alberta, significant cross-formational flow from the underlying Leduc Aquifer introduces energy into the Nisku Aquifer and drives the groundwater flow outward from these potentiometric highs. In southern Alberta and northwestern Montana, topography driven flow creates downdip flow steering the oil driving force vectors in a northerly, northeasterly, and a northwesterly direction, creating several areas of converging vectors. At West Pembina, overpressuring creates a local potentiometric high leading to an outward directed flow and oil driving force vectors. In the Williston basin, the low hydraulic gradients and high structural gradient create oil driving forces that are dominated by buoyancy forces. In the east central part of the Alberta basin, the area acts as a regional discharge due to the low land surface topography and the trapping could potentially be affected by recharge in local flow system due to small-scale land surface topography variations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...