by Jordan Clark 

by Liz Sutherland

by Matt Dupont

Looking at the drilling stats from 2016 you may be tempted to think this was another bad year, and you wouldn't be totally wrong, but let's take a closer look at some important events that occurred. In total, four wells reached total depth (TD) in 2016 but as you'll note later in the article, this year brought more than pure development wells. Development wells amounted to one less than in 2015, although many of the TDs were for stratigraphic tests as a result of the natural gas investigation at Indian Hills. Additionally, a total of five commercial licences were issued and the nearly fifty wells were plugged.

The silver lining in 2016 was the return of one very important category: exploration. First Chatham Energy et al #1 (T012455), classified as a new pool wildcat, holds the distinction of being the only exploration well drilled in 2016 and the first exploration well drilled since 2014. This proposed natural gas well targeted the Cambrian formation near the Dover pool. The well's final status is an oil show but more importantly this showed the industry that exploration and drilling is not dead in Ontario.

Other wells reaching TD in 2016 included a stratigraphic test at St. Mary's Cement (T012468: BH15-01A), a new horizontal natural gas storage well drilled by Enbridge in Corunna Pool (T012482: TC 9H (HORIZ#1), and a private natural gas well drilled in Wainfleet in the Haldimand Pool. The final result for the private well was a successful producer.

New commercial licences came in at a total of five for the year. Three licences were issued for stratigraphic tests, one licence was issued for a natural gas storage well, and one licence was issued at the end of the year for exploration. The new exploration well is a second well by First Chatham Energy.

Crews at least had some work throughout the year in the form of well plugging. Nearly fifty wells were plugged in 2016, just slightly less than the 58 that were plugged in 2015.

Where is Ontario headed in 2017? With one exploration well already slated for 2017 Ontario may break free of its all-time drilling low. We only have to look back to 2013 to see exploration wells in the double-digits and if we look back seven years before that we see well TDs at 95 for the year. Productive times aren't that far behind us and at current commodity prices Ontario's high netbacks and easy access to infrastructure make a productive future look possible too. It'll only take one more well in 2017 to break this two year all-time low streak!

How have the past two years of hardly any new drilling impacted production?  Tune in on our next quarterly edition to find out in our newsletter subscriber exclusive production sneak peak!

In 2008 I had the pleasure of working with the OGSR library as a data editor. I’m back again now in 2017, and it’s been great to see how the library has grown. The building hasn’t changed a bit, still the same pink and yellow walls, but the quality and quantity of information has expanded impressively.

Returning to the OGSR in 2017, the first thing I noticed was how much the staff here truly works together as a team. We participate in regular group meetings and are focused on improvement, constantly coming up with impressive ideas to expand the library’s role. We now have our own team of geologists, a professional GIS person, and our library manager is a spatial data specialist who can basically do it all. They all really know their stuff.    

Back in the day we were a real rag-tag crew with one project: copying and digitizing well files. It felt like a project without an end. Seeing that project complete makes me proud. All physical files are now displayed in open standing shelves (no more uninviting drawers). It’s been fun to grab a file and see my handwriting on the label as I add a missing form or new information. All files are now scanned, available on our website, and enhanced with data you can’t get anywhere else.     

The industry has changed a lot. Our library is now always looking forward, asking, “What’s next?” The really impressive this is that we always have an answer to that difficult question. I’m very proud and fortunate to be a part of this team.

GIT - Geoscientist in Training

Candace wasn't the first young person to be inspired by their father's vocation. Growing up as the daughter of a Petroleum Engineer, Candace saw the world through the eye of a geologist. As her and her family moved across continents, following her father's job, she quickly gained a keen interest in the environment. It only made sense for her to follow her passion and pursue an education in the Earth Sciences.

Throughout her degree, Candace worked to build relationships and experiences that would in turn help to build her resume. She highlights her undergraduate thesis research as being the key to landing her first summer student job, "[A thesis]... provides a snippet of all aspects of research and field work and is very relevant to workforce situations."

Conferences and networking are a very important, albeit intimidating, aspect of job hunting. Candace recommends the Petroleum & Developers Association of Canada Conference (PDAC) as being one of the most student friendly events. I ask her to share her approach when attending a conference to network, "It is important to make an impression, which is impossible to do when visiting booths as groups. Show independence, as well as a keen interest to try new things." Candace goes on to say that these skills can be developed during your undergrad, through leadership experiences and involvements. PDAC offered Candace her first connection with the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS), a group who hires large teams of students to assist in summer field work. This interaction with OGS provided more than just a couple field seasons for young Candace. By the time she had begun her MSc, the OGS had funded her research as well as hired her as a field crew leader for the Ambient Groundwater Program in the summers. Upon her defence, Candace was offered a full-time position in their Sudbury offices. In no time at all, Candace had the experience necessary to receive her professional designation.

Candace reflects on the differences between the projects she worked on as a student to those she works on in her capacity as OGSR Geologist as being relational. Although her first tasks involved data entry and QA/QC type projects, her current assignments build on those fundamentals along with growing responsibilities and understandings. In March of this year, Candace will take on the role of inaugural full-time OGSR Geoscientist.

I ask Candace if there were any skills she wished she would've had going into her first geology job, to which she suggested the usefulness of ArcGIS and relational databases, such as Microsoft Access. "Although your first job will probably provide on-site training, it never hurts to brush up on these and other skills." In regards to job-hunting, Candace recommends talking to professors and supervisors one-on-one to establish connections and gain mentorship. She also recommends connecting with current working professionals, either by email or face-to-face. It is never a bad idea to ask for advice and help if you need it.

The OGSR Library has recently completed a new data layer for Google Earth that displays the locations of 42 wells across Ontario that have associated core photographs. For the second part of the fluorescence series we will showcase one of these wells. The full data layer can be downloaded here. 

Lambton County’s Enniskillen Township is a historically renowned region associated with the birth of North America’s oil industry, boasting the very first commercial oil well.  Given the important significance of this region we will highlight a specific example of a historical oil well located in the Devonian Oil Springs Pool. Table 1 lists the well’s geological information and Figures 1-3 display photographs of the rock core samples from the Devonian Formations between the depth intervals of 120.40 m to 128.93 m. In this well, the Dundee-Lucas formations display various porosities and under ultra-violet fluorescence (UVF) light some of these features can be observed. Typically, dark oil stained rocks under UVF will exhibit orange-yellow and white colours whereas non-hydrocarbon rock display darker blue-grey colours.

Table 1. Well card geological formations as intersected by the well and the associated formation top depths.

Figure 1 (a, b, c). Oil Staining at 120.40-123.93m in the Devonian Lucas Formation, Lambton, Enniskillen County, Ontario. The limestone rock core is viewed under white light where the core is dry (a), white light where the core is wet(b) and dry core under UVF(c).

Figure 2 (a, b, c). Oil Staining at 123.93-127.47m in the Devonian Lucas Formation, Lambton, Enniskillen County, Ontario. The limestone rock core is viewed under white light where the core is dry (a), white light where the core is wet(b) and dry core under UVF(c).

  

Figure 3 (a, b, c). Oil Staining at 127.47-128.93m in the Devonian Lucas Formation, Lambton, Enniskillen County, Ontario. The limestone rock core is viewed under white light where the core is dry (a), white light where the core is wet(b) and dry core under UVF(c).

The Ontario Oil, Gas & Salt Resources Library is a not-for-profit corporation that manages all of Ontario's public drilling and production data from the petroleum and solution mined salt industries. This includes processing, storing, and providing safe and convenient access to all of the industry's drill core and rock cuttings. The Library makes as much of this data as possible available through our online portal to members all over the world. The financial support of the petroleum industry and our membership make this possible.

Please visit www.ogsrlibrary.com/membership_ontario_oil_gas_salt for more information on becoming a member and accessing data.