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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.
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