A project to increase the total number of fluid analyses available in electronic format has recently been completed, building upon an earlier initiative to digitize formation fluid information that had previously only been available in PDF format.
DATE ISSUED: Sept. 13, 2023
EFFECTIVE DATE: Immediately
The BC Energy Regulator (BCER) recently completed a project to increase the total number of fluid analyses available in electronic format, building upon an earlier initiative to digitize formation fluid information that had previously only been available in PDF format.
Fluid analyses tell energy companies what fluids are in subsurface geological formation in a given area, which is useful information for:
- Resource extraction – help companies determine if a given resource is located there, if it’s economic to extract and how best to extract it. This applies to oil and gas as well as other potential resources, such as hydrogen, helium and geothermal.
- Storage/disposal potential – by knowing what fluids are in a formation, a company can determine if there will be compatibility issues between the existing reservoir fluids and the disposal/storage fluid (produced water, acid gas, CCS).
- Safety – Analyses determine the existence and concentration of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in a formation at a given depth and in a given area. H2S is a toxic gas and it makes drilling operations safer to know at which depths they may encounter H2S. It’s also an input for calculation of the EPZ (emergency planning zone) for wells that contain H2S.
The majority of newly available records are for formations encountered when drilling the Montney, the primary target for development. In addition to the population of new records, improvements have been made to the quality of existing data. To access this data, go to the Data Centre - “Drilling Data for All Wells in BC” and choose the files for gas, oil and water analysis.
Analysis Type |
Records Entered |
% Records Increase |
Gas |
8,084 |
19 |
Hydrocarbon Liquid |
889 |
10 |
Oil |
858 |
19 |
Water |
6,120 |
51 |
The total number of fluid analyses available to companies in electronic format has increased by 24 per cent. Further details on the number of records added by geological formation, planned future iterations of this project and more information, can be found in a project summary report.
Ongoing work and future projects will continue to populate records, with the goal of a complete database of all fluid analysis.
If you have any questions regarding this Information Update, please contact:
Logan Gray, P.Eng.
Reservoir Engineer
BC Energy Regulator
250-419-4465