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Leduc No. 1
The first drill site was Leduc
No. 1. This site was found on a field on Mike Turta's
farm, which is located
15 kilometres west of Leduc and about 50 kilometres
south of Edmonton. The well was ranked a wildcat. No
drilling of any kind had taken place within an
eighty kilometre radius. Drilling started on November
20, 1946. At the beginning, the crew thought the
well was a gas discovery, but there were signs of
something more. Past 1,500 metres, the drilling
sped up and the first bit samples showed free oil
in the reservoir rock.
As a result of this breakthrough, Imperial Oil
decided to bring the well in with some fanfare at
ten o'clock in the morning on February 13, 1947. The oil
company invited civic dignitaries, the media, and the
general public to the well site, which is south of what
is now Devon. The night before the ceremony,
however, swabbing equipment broke down and the crew
members laboured all night to repair it. By morning
no oil flowed and many of the invited guests left.
Finally, late in the afternoon, the crew prompted the well to flow. Many locals came to
see a spectacular column of smoke and fire beside
the derrick as the crew flared the first gas and
oil. Alberta mines minister N. E. Tanner turned the
valve to start the oil flowing (at an initial rate
of about 155 cubic metres per day), and the Canadian
oil industry moved into the modern era. Imperial
Oil's search for oil finally paid off. By the end of
1947, Imperial Oil and a group of small companies
had drilled 147 more wells in the Leduc-Woodbend
oilfield. Surprisingly, only eleven were dry.
Leduc No. 1 stopped producing in 1974 after the
production of 317,000 barrels of oil and 9
million cubic metres of natural gas. On November 1,
1989, Esso Resources—the exploration and production
arm of Imperial Oil—began producing the field as a
gas reservoir.
On February 13th, 1947 -- with the press, government officials, and
local farmers standing by -- the Leduc #1 blew in. Vern
Hunter recalled the event: "By the morning of
February 13 -- the date set -- we hadn't started to
swab (a technique for sucking oil to the surface)
and that operation sometimes takes days. However,
we crossed our fingers and at daylight started in.
Shortly before 4 p.m. the well started to show some
signs of life. Then with a roar the well came in,
flowing into the sump near the rig. We switched it
to the flare line, lit the fire and the most
beautiful smoke ring you ever saw went floating
skywards."
Leduc #1 Gushes Oil
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