Per Kent Pedersen is an associate professor with the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary, and owner of a consulting company providing technical support for reservoir characterization. He also teaches field seminars for petroleum companies and geological societies.

Pedersen, an AAPG member, holds a doctorate in geology from the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark, and has had a diverse career in academia, government and the oil and gas industry.

His previous academia experience includes Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and assistant professor at Brandon University, Brandon, Canada. He also spent several years in the industry as exploration geologist with Apache Canada and senior exploration geologist with Kereco Energy.

Since joining the University of Calgary in 2008 he has established a multidisciplinary research program with a large number of graduate students, which is primarily industry-funded and involves collaboration with a large and diverse group of researchers from universities, government institutions and the oil and gas industry.

The research program builds on his work in industry and government, with current research focused on three areas:

• Mudstone depositional processes and stratigraphic architecture, and controls on organic accumulation and lateral variability.
• Geological reservoir characterization of a wide spectrum of tight oil reservoir types from pore size to basin scale, with a focus on the link between depositional process and lateral and vertical heterogeneity from bed to sequence scale and their link to production.
• The link between sedimentary facies, composition and fabric, and fracture characteristics (i.e. fracture intensity, height, in outcrops and subsurface, and induced seismicity.)

Statement for DL Tour

My AAPG Distinguished Lecture tour will focus on two topics that have seen a surge of new research in recent years and I will discuss some of the recent paradigm shifts in our understanding of mud deposition and controls on sweet spots in light oil plays.

While mudstone constitutes the majority of the sedimentary record, they are often perceived as being relative monotonous both vertically and laterally and thus not worthy of any significant research, however detailed examination of outcrops and cores reveal mudstones form highly heterogeneous 3D bodies. My lecture will examine depositional processes revealed in thin section and hand specimens and how these relate to larger scale facies distribution and depositional architecture, including mudstone clinoforms. I will conclude with demonstrating how this relates to reservoir heterogeneity and fairways of unconventional type hydrocarbon reservoirs.

The intensely exploited Western Canada Sedimentary Basin has seen a resurgence in light oil production from a wide range of tight reservoirs from multistage hydraulically fractured horizontal wells. While several of these plays are self-sourced with a close relationship between source and reservoir, a large proportion of them are charged by hydrocarbons that have migrated considerable distances to form large continuous accumulations in low quality reservoirs. In my talk I will discuss the characteristics of these plays and the controls and successes in determining the sweet spots within these unconventional light tight oil plays.