BOE Report

Neil Watson

Well of the Week  – Hiding behind a thin veneer

Please allow me a bit of a diversion before we dive into this Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week. The Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists is holding its Annual General Meeting on Thursday December 8, 2022. This meeting is particularly important due to a request for the members to vote on a Special Resolution to change the CSPG’s name to the Canadian Energy Geoscience Association. After almost five decades of existence, the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists [Read more]

Well of the Week  – First oil well in Manitoba

The time has come for the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week to resume a focus on the easternmost province in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. A flurry of drilling commenced across the west soon after Imperial Oil drilled Leduc No. 1 in 1947 and pulled the western Canadian oil and gas industry up from the depths of despair brought on by an infamous string of 133 dry holes. Manitoba had to endure another 17 dry holes before 100/07-12-010-28W1/00 discovered the Daly Field [Read more]

Well of the Week  – Is the past the key to the energy future?

In addition to highlighting cool geology, the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week also likes to discuss important contributions of the Canadian oil and gas industry to our nation and the world. In this case, by asking the question: Can Pre-Confederation innovations be instructive in our quest for an efficient energy transition? Investigating this premise leads to the subject of this week’s WotW. The first oil well in western Canada wasn’t the first in Canada. And with all due [Read more]

Well of the Week – We get letters (which induce flashbacks)!

It is always appreciated when readers of the  Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week take the time to follow-up on our articles with additional insights. This week we will start recognizing some of these contributions. We kicked off our series on the throughline of resource plays in the history of the western Canadian hydrocarbon industry with a post on the first gas well in western Canada. Robert Hawkes of Pressure Diagnostics Ltd sent a scan of a pix Card for the Alderson [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Horning in on Halloween

What was scarier this week?  Ghosts and goblins at your front door on Monday or the drive home on Tuesday?  If that wasn’t enough and you want to see something really scary this Halloween, look at how much gas the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week (200/c-024-D/094-O-09/00) has produced. Way up north in the Horn River play, c-24-D has produced over 18 bcf and several of its pad partners are not far behind. It has been close to a decade since the Horn River has been a [Read more]

Well of the Week – This was one way to make a mark in Manitoba

The discovery of astroblemes in conjunction with oil and gas exploration is always an interesting distraction.  Enough impact craters have been discovered in the WCSB to make an entire Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week series on the subject.                         One that comes to mind for me is the Hartney Lake structure in southwestern Manitoba.  I was in the process of [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Credit where credit is due

Time for the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week to clear-up a common misconception!  While it was a close second, the first Canadian horizontal multi-stage fractured well was not in the Cardium but in the Bakken in 2004.  A bit of sleuthing indicates the honour goes to 191/01-23-008-09W2/00. Now that the Bakken has been given its due, it gives us a chance to highlight the work done by one of our geologists, David Cronkwright, in his master’s thesis on the Viewfield Bakken. [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Helium on the horizon

We are just past the Thanksgiving weekend.  And in terms of giving thanks, is there any end to what the WCSB can provide?  This Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week exemplifies the application of oil and gas skills to capture value from a different resource. This time it is the elusive Helium molecule.  With so much going on in this corner of the industry it will take some time for the dust to settle.  It is exciting to watch a new facet of the industry develop. This is an [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – The WCSB ain’t dead yet

The Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week for October 6, 2022 will give you something to digest over the Thanksgiving weekend.  The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin has often been treated like a minor character in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Contrary to some opinions, it is not dead yet. The Leduc – Woodbend Rex play is an example of the potential rewards of identifying and pursuing by-passed pay. I specifically refer to 102/03-22-048-26W4/00. Applying modern stratigraphic [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Mississippian mystery?

The last Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week reviewed  Manitoba’s largest cumulative producer hosted in the Scallion Member of the Lodgepole Formation (Thanks to Steve Charbonneau and Norm Hopkins for having their sticks on the ice with their much appreciated comments on the post). This week we travel about 1,000 km west along the Trans-Canada Highway to visit a generally equivalent section in the Lower Banff to Big Valley petroleum system at 100/10-30-008-23W4/00. This WotW lies [Read more]