Oil Developments In Canada During 1924

IN THE autumn of 1922, British Petroleums Ltd. found oil of 14° Baume in a sand 17 ft. thick in its No. 2 well at Wainwright, 120 miles southeast of Edmonton. This greatly encouraged drilling in the Wainwright-Irma area and this past summer several wells were started, three of which are now completed' and the others still being drilled. Of the three completed, No. 4 British Petroleums contains oil; No. 3 British Petroleums gave a show of oil but so far has not given much hope of becoming a commercial producer; and No. 1 Maple Leaf Co., as now finished, is a gas well with a daily flow of gas of about 2,500,000 cu. ft. at a closed pressure of 700 lb. An oil sand is reported . to have been encountered below the producing gas horizon, in the Maple Leaf well but has not been tested. Operations on this well have been suspended for the winter. The Geological Survey of Canada this past summer undertook a geological investigation of this area with the object of defining the structures with which the oil and gas are associated. The 'structure underlying this portion of the plains was supposed to-be a terrace with the western edge dipping into the Alberta syncline and with a monoclinal structure to the east. By accurate leveling on known geological horizons on this terrace, a number of gentle folds were located and it is in these folds that the oil land gas are found. At the British Petroleums Nos. 2-and- 4 oil wells, the western flank of the fold has a gentle dip of only a few feet to the mile to the southwest whereas the strata on the eastern flank dip to the northeast about 40 ft. in 1/2 mile, the strike of the fold being northwest and southeast. How far oil will be found down the gentle southwest dip is unknown but probably the productive part of the fold will not exceed 1 mile in width, and possibly less. No. 3 British Petroleums well is on the strike of the fold 1 mile southeast of the two oil wells. The sand that was productive in Nos. 2-and 4 wells was not present in this well or, if present, was very thin and unproductive. Two other sand horizons, however, were encountered. The upper of these