Well of the Week – Wells that make you go “Hmm……” No. III
The Canadian oil and gas industry has been beset by numerous challenges over the last decade: low commodity prices, restricted access to markets, and, most recently, unrealistic expectations about phasing out oil and gas. It has been a long tack against strong headwinds that are only now starting to abate. Several authors have commented on these obstacles. Some have taken to tilting at windmills, seeing monsters on every horizon. If I were to define a raison d’être for the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week, it is as a vehicle to support the Canadian oil and gas industry through positive tales of how an industry operating in a fecund basin can provide a great benefit to a democratic and relatively egalitarian society. Focus on the positive is our mantra.
The current series on the history of oil and gas discoveries in the Peace River Arch serves as an example of how we are trying to accomplish this goal by discussing various exploration paradigms available to small-scale start-ups now that prices have recovered. Previous articles have outlined structural models related to Basement clastics oil, the very successful initial application of horizontal drilling to a Devonian oil play and a well teasing the possibility of a new resource play.
The previous two articles outlined different Kiskatinaw play types. A structurally and sedimentologically complex but significant gas producer and a less prolific but shallower and more repeatable subcrop play. Conventional wisdom holds that these plays, located west of the Sixth Meridian, were played out. Not so fast. The Kiskatinaw west of the Fifth Meridian provides three examples of what old school prospecting can uncover (I am often told I am giving away too much information. This time I am redacting key information):
- First is a thick wet Basal Kiskatinaw sand in a structurally complex area with only a few penetrations per township. Lots of follow-up room.
Example of Thick Basal Kiskatinaw Sand. Created with data courtesy of Petro Ninja
- Second up is a basal sand downdip of the subcrop edge. Is there a pool lurking up dip?
Possible Downdip Well of Subcrop Play? Created with data from Petro Ninja
- And finally, a well that indicates there is updip potential in the previous two wells. The log suite includes an example of bypassed pay in the Belloy, a wet sandstone down hole and at the base of the Kiskatinaw, what appears to be potential by-passed pay.
Example of Possible Bypassed Pay. Created with data courtesy of Petro Ninja
Three wells that make you go “Hmmmm….”.