Biography

Luc Chabanole completed his Bachelor of Science in Geology with a minor in Spanish at the University of Regina in 2010. Following his undergraduate degree, he worked in the mineral exploration industry for Search Minerals Inc., exploring for rare earth elements in Labrador. In 2012, he enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan as a graduate student where, in 2015, he successfully completed his thesis entitled, “Sedimentology, Ichnology, and Stratigraphic Architecture of the Bakken Formation, west-central Saskatchewan” under the supervision of Dr. Luis Buatois. He is currently enrolled as a doctoral student in Geological Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan where he is studying the Middle Devonian Prairie Evaporite Formation.

Talk abstract

Although the mind often wanders towards southeastern Saskatchewan and North Dakota at the mention of the Bakken Formation, which only began producing light oil economically with the advent of horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing technologies, the Bakken Formation of west-central Saskatchewan has been conventionally producing heavy oil since the 1950s.

Similar to the southeastern Bakken, the Bakken Formation of west-central Saskatchewan is subdivided into three Members: a heterolithic Middle Member bound by Upper and Lower black shale Members. However, the Bakken of west-central Saskatchewan shows distinct differences, most notably within the Middle Member.

Based on sedimentary structures and trace fossil assemblages, the Middle Member exhibits open-marine and marginal-marine intervals and have been placed within a sequence stratigraphic framework. This was determined through geological mapping of described facies and facies associations and once completed illustrated the lateral distribution of west-central Saskatchewan’s Middle Member sediments.

Mapping of the overlying Mississippian carbonates and sub-Mesozoic unconformity revealed that post-deposition erosion is the primary controlling factor in the distribution and preservation of west-central Bakken sediments, illustrating the importance of bracketing paleoenvironmental reconstructions before finalizing interpretations.