TESTS PLANNED ON BRITISH COLUMBIA'S COAST

John McCaslin
Exploration Editor

Three of the most interesting wildcats of the season will be drilled on the delta of the Fraser River in British Columbia, western Canada.

Dynamic Oil Co. and Conoco of Canada announced last December that the planned exploratory sites are the result of recent concentrated studies of the hydrocarbon potential of Canada's Pacific Coast margin which was concentrated in the Queen Charlotte and Georgia basins.

Northwest Oil Report of Portland notes that studies like these often generate exploratory campaigns such as the new one on the way by Dynamic and Conoco. in a pristine region such as this, there have been very few wildcat ventures in the past. Any new wildcat will be watched with keen interest as geologists look for some more clues to the misty potential of the British Columbia coastal areas and the Pacific Northwest as a whole.

A SIGNIFICANT PROGRAM

We do know, as a result of past exploratory drilling in the delta area, that the Fraser River's terminus has a thick sedimentary section.

But oil and gas shows have been very few and far between in wells drilled along the Fraser River. Northwest Oil Report notes that most of the wells were drilled in the early 1960's. Latest exploratory work in the immediate area was in 1986 at the two BP sites on Vancouver Island and the 1988 work done by American Hunter in Washington's Bellingham basin extension of the Georgia basin.

The Portland publication adds that the American Hunter well was suspended for testing, but is now abandoned. And, data will be held confidential until next year. There were gas shows reported in shallow zones. This basin is well known for its shallow gas production in other days.

IS PART OF THE PICTURE

The Pacific Northwest remains as one of the least tested of all northwestern U.S. and western Canada provinces.

Indeed, there are large oil and gas fields in the northeastern portion of British Columbia, but these area far from the Fraser River delta. The State of Washington has no production of any kind, while there is only one gas field in the entire state of Oregon. At one time many years ago, a small oil field began to develop in western Washington, but it fizzled and became abandoned. Various wildcats, both deep and shallow, have failed to find any more hydrocarbons in the ensuing years. So the Pacific Northwest wildcatter has his work cut out for him, for sure.

Those interested in the current action will note that the southern portion of the Georgia-Bellingham basin is associated with a moderately strong east-west trending magnetic maximum and a generally east-west gravity maximum. Hydrocarbon seeps have been reported through the years, and there has been some gas production in the Bellinham basin, as noted above.