The northern half of the area is represented by regional dipping geology with shallow gas plays developing around the paleo unconformity and deeper Slave Point potential associated with carbonate reef development and regional structural tectonism associated with the Hay River suture zone. The area has well developed fields in the Ladyfern, Hamburg, Lapp and Boyer areas while also possessing a number of under explored exploration fairways extend away from the existing production.

The southern half of the area encompassing the Peace River Arch is prolific for its multi zone prospectivity that has resulted in many new discoveries in recent years. Seismic remains a critical tool in this area given its structural complexity.

Both of these areas have been subject to high land sale prices and a proliferation of new exploratory drilling in recent years, including the Ladyfern discovery and recent Triassic discoveries on the Peace River Arch block. In each of the cases, the prospects require new high resolution 3D data to provide the risk reduction and reservoir delineation necessary to pursue the opportunities efficiently.

The southern area is classified into two sub regions; the foothills trend which follows along the western edge of southern Alberta, and the more stratigraphic portion to the east where historical Devonian reefs at Wimborne, Leduc, Rimbey and others dot the landscape and have given way more recently to shallower Cretaceous and Triassic exploration including the most recent Coalbed Methane (CBM) resource play in the Horshoe Canyon. In the foothills area, seismic is a necessity in order to image the subsurface and companies have begun to re-look at earlier Turner Valley type trends to exploit other zones not previously explored. In the eastern portion, although seismic has had limited use for the CBM work, recent new discoveries in the Cretaceous have resulted in the increased application of 3D seismic to explore new concepts.