Woodbend Group
| Woodbend Group Stratigraphic range: Frasnian |
|
|---|---|
| Type | Geological formation |
| Sub-units |
Cooking Lake Formation Duvernay Formation Leduc Formation Ireton Formation |
| Underlies | Winterburn Group |
| Overlies | Beaverhill Lake Group |
| Thickness | up to 700 metres (2,300 ft) |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Limestone, dolomite |
| Other | Shale |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 53°20′42″N 113°41′42″W / 53.34507°N 113.6949°WCoordinates: 53°20′42″N 113°41′42″W / 53.34507°N 113.6949°W |
| Region |
 Alberta British Columbia Saskatchewan Manitoba Northwest Territories Yukon
|
| Country |
 Canada
|
| Type section | |
| Named by | Imperial Oil, 1950 |
The Woodbend Group is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
It was first described in the British American Pyrcz No. 1 well by Imperial Oil geological staff in 1950.
The Formation is composed of crystalline and dolomitized limestone (Cooking Lake Formation) in off-reef areas, bituminous shale and argillaceous limestone, detrital limestone (reef fallout), stromatoporoid calcarenite (Duvernay Formation), gray shale, argillaceous limestone, argillaceous dolomite, crystalline dolomite (Ireton Formation). In reef build-ups, it consists of massive limestone and dolomite with porosity (Leduc Formation).
Oil is produced from the Leduc Formation in central Alberta since the early 1950s. Shale gas and liquids are extracted from the Duvernay Formation using horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. Several project test the economic viability of extracting bitumen from the Grosmont Formation.
The Woodbend Group reaches a maximum thickness of 700 metres (2,300 ft) in northern Alberta (where reefs were developed), and has typical thickness of 300 metres (980 ft) in southern and central Alberta. It extends laterally from north-eastern British Columbia through Alberta and into southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Reef build-ups range in size from small mounds to pinnacle reefs and large atoll size reefs and bank developments.
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