Last week, I closed out the resource play series emphasizing that it is the rocks that define our plays and how much more we need to learn about the subsurface. This week the Petro Ninja Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week introduces an intermittent series that will highlight wells illustrating the continuing imperative to understand the geology. Maybe these wells point out operational hazards. Other times the focus will be on exploration leads that could be followed up on. I call these oddities “Wells that make you go hmmm…”
Hmm… Well I Name: Lloydminster #1
Lloydminster #1 telegram
The Lloydminster #1 drilled into the Colony and promptly blew the bailer up in a tangle to the top of the derrick and continued to blow for 15 hours before being brought under control. An estimated 15 mmcf of gas was released during the blowout. Imagine writing that telegram.
Photo of baler caught up in headworks
In some respects, the data available for review from a well drilled almost nine decades ago is quite impressive. A detailed pressure survey that allows a pressure gradient estimate of 0.284 psi/ft (6.4 kPa/m).
A sample log that would put many submitted today to shame. The wellsite geologist even identified the Mannville sediments as being of continental origin.
Summary of sample description with basic environmental interpretation
The science of the mid-1930s did not, however, understand the mechanism through which an under-pressured reservoir could undergo a lost circulation event resulting in a dangerous and expensive blowout. That understanding would come and we should be thankful the necessary research was undertaken.
And after all that, the well was abandoned.
My thanks to Adam Waterman who kindly pointed this well out to me and provided images of the bailer and telegram.