No Oil In Alberta, Eh?

Imperial decided to drill a test well at Fedorah (known as Redwater "C") location 13-22-57-23 W4, which was on the western edge of the Redwater reef. Wes Rabey had already submitted his recommendation in a memo to Walters, January 1948, which Peter Bediz found "gratifying" in terms of its reference to lithology: "...As early as 1948, Wes Rabey recognized that applied seismology may potentially offer criteria in establishing a relationship between lithology and seismic signatures..."

The well was spudded on March 12, 1948, but was abandoned June 5th after reaching 6500 feet. It had hit the reef 300 ft below what would later be identified as the Redwater water table. The road from Leduc to Redwater was strewn with dry holes and the oil industry became cautious. Although several companies had encountered the Redwater structure during seismic reconnaissance, they either disbelieved it or were unaware of its meaning. George Grant, recently retired Chevron veteran, recalls his company's crew identifying the structure before the discovery well was drilled. Fred Kidd, former Shell geologist, is convinced that the structure showed up when a Heiland crew shot the area for them. Les Clark, also with Shell at that time, confirmed Kidd's statement. However, both Shell and Chevron echoed Imperial's initial reaction that it was just too big to be believed. Despite the Leduc discovery of February 13,1947, Shell pulled out. One of their senior executives, Fred Davis of Los Angeles, was reported to have said, "Leduc will supply all the oil that Canada needs, so why look for any more large fields?"

As an interesting aside, if air photos and tree types growing along the reef feature had been analyzed, Redwater would have been identified without seismic. Barney Clare, Imperial staff geologist, recalls confirming the outline of the field, visually, during a flight over the area. But who would have selected a wellsite based on creekology? Stories abound in the oil patch of other obvious natural phenomena being overlooked or disregarded, an example being Ida Henkelman's water well in the Leduc area. During threshing time, when Ida's well was taxed to its limits to supply horses and engines, it would start producing gas (which was even lit occasionally).

Shortly after Leduc No. l went on production, Imperial scrapped the Fischer-Tropsch project and filed on additional open Crown acreage to the east. On April 7, 1947, Imperial applied for another 200,000 acres - Reservation #443, abutting their #350 on the west. Issued in May, #443 would fortuitously encompass the entire Redwater reservoir, but who would know? Edmonton's 1941 regulations, designed to encourage exploration, were still in force allowing acquisition of these concession-type blocks with only geological and geophysical work required. There was no drilling commitment.

Exploration provided a continuous flow of stratigraphic and geophysical information that kept the backroom boys busy. Dr. E. W. Shaw, senior geologist, confirmed in his recommendation to drill Redwater No.1 that the project was shot by geophysical field crews in 1947 and early 1948. Shaw grudgingly refers to seismic data by describing an area of 125 square miles with 150 feet of closure. Had Ray Walters allowed him to see the seismic map by any chance? According to Bud Coote, geophysicist, Shaw and Walters did not get along; both were vying for Jack Webb's job (exploration manager). Walters ultimately won out. Bill Hancock recalls Walters being annoyed at Shaw rating a rug in his office and retaliating by decorating his office with an old doghouse carpet.

Although Shaw mentions core-hole drilling in his recommendation, he places little emphasis on it. Gordon Beard's core hole crew covered the Redwater area, a member of which was Roy Murray. Murray, a native of Saskatchewan who had worked on Failing core-hole rigs, considered the Beard crew to be pathfinders in relation to the discovery of Redwater. Shaw also alluded to the large amount of money spent on exploration. In fact, geophysical expenditures for 1946 totalled $620,000. Comparatively speaking, a present-day seismic crew would burn up that whole amount in less than three weeks.