Mannville gas reentry lights western Canada

G. Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor

Canadian independents have a sizable gas/condensate producing well in central Alberta near Edmonton.

Fletcher Challenge Energy Canada Inc., Calgary, and Dynamic Oil Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., plan to start sales in November at the rate of about 16 MMcfd of gas and 400 b/d of condensate from a Lower Cretaceous Mann- ville channel sand at less than 3,700 ft.

Status Engineering Associates Ltd., Calgary, attributed 63 bcf of gas reserves to the well, St. Albert 06-01-54-26w4m, about 6 miles northwest of Edmonton.

Jack P. Donhuysen, president of Status, said, "My associates and I flowed this well for 60 hr, flowing approximately 21 MMcfd of gas. When we shut-in the well, the surface pressure came back to original conditions in 5 min. I have never seen this before in my life."

The gas has analyzed at 800-1,200 ppm hydrogen sulfide, indicating the need for light scrubbing, Dynamic said.

The one well is sufficient to drain the Mannville reservoir, Dynamic said, but a second well likely will be drilled as a backup to maintain gas deliveries in case of problems with the first well. The first well has 63 ft of net Mannville pay, and the geologist calculated that the backup well will have 89 ft.

The well is two miles away and on a separate structure from nearest Mannville production.

Fletcher and Dynamic laid a $2 million, 10 mile, 6 in. pipeline to Atco Gas Services Inc.'s 55 MMcfd Carbondale gas processing plant, which has been running at about half capacity, Dynamic said.

Further potential

The companies acquired a 6,820 acre block from Imperial Oil Ltd. in late May 1997 for $10.7 million and have increased holdings to around 9,000 acres since then. Interests in the gas rights on the former Imperial acreage are 50-50, and Fletcher holds 75% of the oil rights.

Parts of the acreage are thought prospective in several formations. The 63 bcf well, its bypassed pay located by poring over 1950s-vintage sonic logs, is a reentry of an old well that previously produced gas from Lower Cretaceous Ostracod. The operators are installing a compressor to boost Ostracod production from other wells in the area.

Ostracod has produced more than 100 bcf of gas since the 1950s on the acreage. Other sweet gas development potential is in shallower Cretaceous Viking and Belly River and a newly identified gas zone at 1,200 ft, Dynamic said.

The leases acquired from Imperial also have about a half dozen oil wells producing a combined 200 b/d.

Fraser valley idle

Dynamic also holds one third interest in 56,000 acres in the Fraser River delta about six miles east of Vancouver. Conoco Canada Ltd., Dynamic, and Stateside Energy Ltd. drilled four wells and reentered one well in the early 1990s without finding commercial production. No new work is planned.

Dynamic said it believes the delta contains all the right conditions for gas production, and that it likely contains reservoirs that could be used for gas storage.