Development in Canada in 1945

Abstract

During 1945 the search for oil was continued at about the same rate as in 1944 but there has been a considerable decline in production from 10,166,208 barrels in 1944 to 8,568,815 barrels in 1945. Two factors are mainly responsible for this situation. Firstly sufficient new production has not been found in western Canada to offset the normal decline of Turner Valley which in 1944 produced more than 80 per cent of Canada's oil and secondly the closing, on March 31, of the Canol pipe line, which provided an outlet for more than a million barrels of oil in 1944, has isolated the Norman Wells field except for local consumption which is relatively small. Most of the drilling in 1945 was done in Alberta but considerable was done in Saskatchewan and the Mackenzie River area of Northwest Territories. In eastern Canada drilling has been continued in Ontario, Quebec (Gaspe), Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. No new fields were found but in Alberta a few widely scattered wells have yielded gas and some oil under promising conditions and further developments are occurring in these areas. In the eastern foothills west of Calgary the second Shell well on the front fold was proved to be unproductive. It was 1,018 feet lower structurally on the top of the Paleozoic limestone than the discovery well drilled in 1944. A third well in an intermediate position is being drilled. In the Brazeau area, 150 miles northwest of Calgary, nd also in the foothills, a well reached the top of the possibly productive Paleozoic limestone at 9,498 feet but faulted back into Cretaceous strata before main porous zones were reached. Sufficient gas was present, however, to encourage further developments. On the southern Plains of Alberta, the Conrad field, discovered in 1944, was considerably extended in 1945, and new wells also enlarged the possibly productive area of the West Taber field. The Princess Devonian field, 125 miles east of Calgary, has been proved to be small and on the other similar structures located by geophysical methods in the same general area no Devonian production has been found, although encouragement has resulted from production in higher beds. The first commercial oil well in Saskatchewan began production in April, 1945, in the Lloydminster field on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary. Previously the oil production here had been wholly in Alberta. Production from 6 wells drilled in this field in Saskatchewan this year amounted to 15,857 barrels. Nine wildcat wells were drilled in the Mackenzie River area in 1945 but none of these is productive.