BOE Report

Neil Watson

Well of the Week Selects – Virden: one of the biggest Mississippian oilfields in Western Canada

Time for the Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week and the preview of a series on Manitoba! The easternmost province in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is often overshadowed by her western sisters which is a shame because there are a lot of interesting wells to discuss. For example, I bet a lot of people would be surprised to learn that Manitoba is home to Virden, the fourth largest Mississippian oil field in Canada. And 100/02-21-011-26W1/00 is the proud bearer of the largest [Read more]

Well of the Week selects – Golden Spike

The Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week proudly wears the title of the highest cumulative oil production in western Canada. If the present is the key to the past, can this reminder from the past of the prolific possibilities of the WCSB be a key encouragement for the future? In 1948, Imperial Oil drilled 100/09-22-051-27W4/00 into the Leduc and discovered the Golden Spike field. Over the next half century, it produced 39.7 million barrels of light oil and 38 bcf of natural [Read more]

Well of the Week: You need the right shovel to find the pony

The final Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week in the series on the 5 different styles of Foothills plays brings to mind the story of the optimistic child who just knew there was a pony in the big pile of horse manure.  Well, the fifth Foothills play type is referred to by Newson (2001) as the “Reef Play”; a primarily stratigraphic play chasing Devonian bioherms in either the footwall or hangingwall of a thrust.  This play is a tough nut to crack but successful wells have high [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects: The elegance of the Triangle Zone

The penultimate Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week focusing on Foothills play types is 100/12-18-036-08W5/00. The 12-18 well is part of the Ricinus Cardium Field. Ricinus is just one of many examples of a Triangle Zone play type. Triangle Zone structures are a blend of multiple thrusts , duplexes, detachment folds culminating in eastern dipping thrusts. Fascinating stuff! The schematic section highlights the Cabin Creek structure. There are so many examples to choose from. [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Migration works both ways

The cognoscenti are aware of the need for a robust geomechanical model based on subsurface data in resource plays such as the Montney, SAGD and CCUS.  This Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week emphasizes the importance of also understanding the geomechanics of conventional plays. Pancanadian Petroleum drilled 100/11-31-079-15W6/00 to evaluate a Kiskatinaw gas prospect.  The results were disappointing, and the well was abandoned.  Fractures and faults can be seen even on a poor [Read more]

Well of the Week Selects – Third generation Foothills plays

The next Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week highlights 200/C-078-J-093-P-04/00. This well is an example of a Third Generation play type and is producing gas from the Pardonet - Baldonnel which has produced over 90 bcf of gas. Third Generation Foothills Plays (Newson, 2001) are characterized by Detachment Fold style structures with significant permeability enhancement due to the associated fracturing. Detachment fold plays begin to dominate the further one traverses to the [Read more]

Well of the Week selects – Moose Mountain

The Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week is back to a review of different structural styles in the Foothills. In this episode the object of our attention is 100/02-23-023-07W5/00 which produces oil from a Second Generation structural feature at Moose Mountain northwest of the Turner Valley field. Second Generation Foothills Plays (Newson, 2001) are typified by a complex interaction of multiple thrust imbricates and fault bend folds. And a properly balanced cross section is a [Read more]

Well of the Week – Akamina #2 and past phases of exploration in the Flathead

This Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week is admittedly a bit of a stream-of-consciousness story.  Let us see where it starts and where it takes us. We went for a paddle on the Glenmore Reservoir on Saturday evening. It was a beautiful way to clear the mind after thinking about CCUS during the week. On the slog back into the wind, I noticed how the placement of the Dingman #1 replica along the bank of the reservoir (mentioned in last week’s post) was very evocative of the [Read more]

Well of the Week selects – Dingman No. 1 and Royalite No. 4

Summer is a great time for hiking in the mountains and to reminisce about the history of Foothills exploration in a Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week series on this very elegant facet of our basin’s history. This week, the wells that started it all: Dingman No. 1 (100/14-06-020-02W5/00) and Royalite No. 4 (100/12-07-020-02W5/00). Excellent examples of a First Generation Foothills Play Type (Newson, 2001). These plays are typified by a single thrust imbricate. In addition [Read more]

Well of the week selects – Waterton

We were driving through southern Alberta a couple of weeks ago on our way from Writing-on-Stone to Beaver Mines. It was beautiful seeing the mountains rise up from the prairies. But you didn’t click on the link to read about that view. It has been described many times before by better writers. But it seeing the looming mountains of the Lewis Range brought to mind the Waterton Gas Field. The 1W0/12-09-003-30W4/00 well is worthy of being a Petro Ninja – Enlighten Geoscience Well of the Week as [Read more]