QUEBEC DUE WILDCAT NEXT YEAR AS CARBON DIOXIDE TEST LOOMS

Aug. 3, 1992
Bow Valley Industries Inc., Calgary, is attempting to farm out the testing of a rank Quebec wildcat that encountered carbon dioxide. A Bow Valley led group, meanwhile, is about half finished with a 260 km seismic survey, data from which will be used to pick the next wildcat location. The drilling in the Quebec lowlands is on part of an ancient Cambro-Ordovician coastline from Newfoundland through Quebec and the eastern U.S. to West Texas (see map, OGJ, Feb. 17, p. 82).

Bow Valley Industries Inc., Calgary, is attempting to farm out the testing of a rank Quebec wildcat that encountered carbon dioxide.

A Bow Valley led group, meanwhile, is about half finished with a 260 km seismic survey, data from which will be used to pick the next wildcat location.

The drilling in the Quebec lowlands is on part of an ancient Cambro-Ordovician coastline from Newfoundland through Quebec and the eastern U.S. to West Texas (see map, OGJ, Feb. 17, p. 82).

The Bow Valley 1 St. Simon wildcat encountered gas too small to measure and water on a drillstem test in Ordovician Beekmantown dolomite at about 13,448 ft. Bow Valley set casing and installed a wellhead.

The gas was about 95% CO2, and the well encountered about 9 m of average 9% intracrystalline porosity in Beekmantown dolomite, said Dr. Michael C. Pick, president and chief executive officer of Exploration Terrenex Ltd., Calgary.

The CO2 flocculated the drilling mud and plugged the test tool. CO2 production would be commercial for food processing in Quebec if a flow of about 2 MMcfd were established, Pick said. The CO2 probably would command a price 2.5 times that of methane in the area, he estimated.

Bow Valley is attempting to farm out testing of the well to one of several large oil companies that has experience dealing with CO2 producing wells, Pick said.

Meanwhile, Bow Valley and partners plan to start a second wildcat in the area just north of Drummondville, Que., in early 1993.

Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.