Recent Exploration Developments in Ontario

Abstract

Abstract Exploration activity in the province of Ontario showed an oyer-all upswing during 1967. This was most noticeable in two relatively new areas of exploratory interest – offshore Lake Erie and the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands. In southwestern Ontario, where North America's oil industry was born, significant discoveries continued to be made. Developments in Lake Erie held the spotlight over those on land. By the year's end, virtually all the Canadian portion of the lake, some 3,108,000 acres, was held under exploratory licence by fifteen different operators. Wildcat drilling on this acreage discovered six new gas pools, in both the Clinton-Cataract sands and the Guelph-Lockport carbonates. On land, attention was again focused on the Keg River-like Silurian pinnacle reefs. One such reef, abandoned some eight years ago as salt-plugged, proved to be productive with the drilling of a successful offset well. In early 1968, another Guelph-Lockport pinnacle reef was discovered using geophysical interpretation, thereby raising hopes that new techniques will now be useful in locating others. In the Hudson and James Bay region, the federal government mapped two large prospective sedimentary basins. Silurian reefs similar to those found in southwestern Ontario were noted. Leasing of federal offshore and provincial onshore acreage in both Manitoba and Ontario (1,000,000 acres) and geophysical exploration continued on into 1968. The first exploratory test was drilled in the northern basin on the Manitoba side of the provincial boundary. At a symposium on Hudson Bay, held at Ottawa in February, 1968, industry and government reviewed the geophysical and geological work completed to date and discussed the potential occurrences of oil and gas, both onshore and offshore, in the Hudson and James Bay area. These developments, combined with attractive secondary geological prospects, readily available subsurface information and the absence of prorationing, plus a high wellhead price paid for crude oil and natural gas, certainly suggest that Ontario will continue to maintain and perhaps improve its present status in Canada's total petroleum picture.