Leduc No. 1

reservoirs.

Discovery and production

Imperial's success was inspired by the company's much earlier discovery at Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories. The link, which was developed by the University of Alberta's Charles R. Stelck and his students, was that there appeared to be Devonian reefs in Alberta. At the Norman Wells discovery, Imperial had located just such a reservoir in the 1920s. [ [http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/09/trail-to-leduc-began-in-north.html The Road to Leduc Began in the North] ]

The drill site was in a field on the farm of Mike Turta, 15 kilometres west of Leduc and about 50 kilometres south of Edmonton. Located on a weak seismic anomaly, the well was a rank wildcat. No drilling of any kind had taken place within an 80-kilometre radius.

Drilling started on November 20, 1946. At first the crew thought the well was a gas discovery, but there were signs of something more. At m to ft|num=1530|abbr=no|spell=Commonwealth|precision=0|wiki=yes, drilling speeded up and the first bit samples showed free oil in dolomite, a good reservoir rock. After coring, oil flowed to the surface during a drill stem test at m to ft|num=1544|abbr=no|spell=Commonwealth|precision=0|wiki=yes. [ [http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/08/canadian-oil-and-gas-first-100-years_12.html Canadian Oil and Gas - The First 100 Years] ]

According to folklore, Imperial drilled 133 dry holes (unsuccessful wells) in western Canada before Leduc, although the records show that these wells actually included natural gas discoveries and even some small oil and heavy oil wells which, at the time of drilling, were uneconomic.

The rig manager for Leduc No. 1 was Vern Hunter, who had supervised many of these commercially unsuccessful holes. Because of this lack of success, he became known as "Dry Hole" Hunter. Leduc No. 1 was brought in with some fanfare on February 13, 1947. In 1974 it was shut in after having produced some 50,300 cubic metres (320,000 barrels) of oil and 9 million cubic metres (320 million cubic feet) of natural gas. [ [http://www.edukits.ca/petroleum/students_faq.htm Alberta's Petroleum Heritage Edukit] ]

References