Well of the Week - Closer to home

As the producing well distribution map shows, the first three Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Wells of the Week to focus on plays related to the Peace River Arch (Granite Wash, Gilwood and Slave Point) were discovered at a significant distance from the Arch itself. The Leduc was the first play to be anchored firmly to the flank of the Arch. This week we look at two early discoveries in this play.

Producing well summary - created using data from Petro Ninja

Just a little over 2 years after the Leduc No. 1 discovery kicked off the modern oil and gas industry and proved the potential of Devonian carbonates, Colorado Oil and Gas spudded the Imperial Normandville #1 well at 100/01-16-079-22W5/00 on May 16, 1949 along the south side of the Peace River Arch Fringing Reef. The 1-16 well was an auspicious start as it eventually produced over 360,000 barrels of oil. Another significant discovery well was spud by Shell a decade later at 100/14-19-087-07W6/00 (cumulative production of over 25 bcf) discovering the Worsley gas field on the northside of the Arch. Other discoveries followed; including notable ones at Eaglesham, Clear Hills and Puskwaskau.

But buoyancy matters. Migration occurs. And the traps associated with the Peace River Arch Leduc did not, amount to anything approaching the significance of its cousins to the southeast. A side benefit of the drilling to test for Leduc, however, was that it also provided data that led to discoveries to be discussed later in this series.

After Switzer et al., 1994

References

Switzer, S. B., Holland, W. G., Christie, D. S., Graf, G. C., Hedinger, A. S., McAuley, R. J., Wierzbicki, R. A. and Packard, J. J. (1994): Devonian Woodbend-Winterburn Strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin; in Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, G.D. Mossop and I. Shetsen (comp.), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Research Council, URL https://ags.aer.ca/publications/chapter-12-devonian-woodbend-winterburn-strata.html, [04/26/2020].