Initial tests indicating the possibility of production of medium gravity crude oil at a rate of more than 800 barrels a day, heaviest production indicated in any well in the province to date, have been completed by Tidewater Association Oil Co. group in a wildcat driller in the Dollard District.

The Tidewater Associated Oil Co. group, having drilled to a depth of almost 7500 feet in its indicated gravity oil producer, Tidewater Eastend Crown No. 1 is now plugging back to the productive Jurassic interval for further production tests.   This is the company's eighteenth wildcat in the province and its first indicated producer.  The well gave up 225 feet of clean 21 degree gravity oil for an 18 foot interval below 4740 feet.  From all accounts it is a most promising find.   Located on the Engen farm south of Dollard it is 15 miles southwest of Shaunavon and about 10 miles southeast of Eastend. Reported as a discovery well in the Shaunavon Standard of June 18 when drill steam tests indicated the presence of medium gravity crude in commercial quantities, it has since been drilled to a depth of 7458 ft. and plugged back to the Jurassic section to conduct production tests. For the current tests Tidewater acidized the interval 4740 ft. to 4818 ft. with 4750 gallons of acid ( the acid eats into the limestone and increases the permeability of the oil-bearing section, thus allowing the oil to flow more freely into the production pipe). Swabbing operation following the acidization brought the oil to the surface and it eventually began to flow intermittently at the rate of 34 barrels an hour of 23 degree gravity crude API ( American Petroleum Institute standards), it was stated in a bureau of publication releases.  Lack of storage tanks at the well site have prevented any extensive production tests to be carried out so far. With relation to other finds in the general area, the Eastend well is some 42 miles south of the medium gravity crude production in the Gull Lake area, 62 miles south by west of Fosterton field and about 40 miles northeast of the capped natural discovery well in the Govenlock area. Tidewater Associated Oil Co. is the operating company for a group of four companies including itself, the Atlantic Refining Co., Colombian Carbon Co. and The Ohio Oil Co. The group holds upwards of 9,000,000 acres under crown reservation and freehold lease in the province and has been operation in Saskatchewan since June, 1949. Drilling contractor on the Eastend well is Arrow Drilling Co.

History of Eastend Crown #1

Location:    LSD 15 -11-6-20 W3M

Spudded:       May 17, 1952

Finished Drilling:     September 2, 1952

Total Depth:    7458 ft. (2273.2m)

Plug Back T.D.:    4854 ft. (1479.5 m)  

Contractor:    Arrow Drilling Company

Cored:    562ft -

7 5/8" Reed Wireline Rock Bit

6 3/4" Diamond Bit  

8 3/4" Diamond Bit        

Total Runs - 103

Drill Stem Tests:    34

Production Casing:    4914 ft. (1497.8 m) - 7" - 23#

Perforated:    78' (3 intervals between 4740' - 4818')

Acidized:    4750 gallons x MFW (15%) - 6 jobs

Initial Production:    September 21, 1953   (flowed 363 barrels) Placed on Pump:    Sept 26, 1956

Arrow Drilling Rig Released September 26, 1952

Note:  Completed in the J-2-B, the well was produced uneconomically and intermittently until September 16, 1965.  Abandonment plugs were run on February 11, 1968.  Casing salvage undertaken by Tom Jacobson (Project Oil & Gas Operators Ltd., Calgary) on September 12, 1974. The interest and excitement generated by this discovery served as a springboard for the continued exploration efforts of the Tidewater Group, leading to the later discovery of the Rapdan Field in February, 1953, Leon Lake in March, 1953, Dollard in May, 1953 and Instow in June, 1954.

Tidewater Discovery Well on Williston Basin Rim October 16, 1952

The derrick at Tidewater discovery well south of Dollard has been moved to a location near Frontier.  Two storage tanks and a pump have been installed at the well site but there is little activity there at the present time.  A sign reads "No Smoking - No Visitors". The following from the Western Oil Examiner, Calgary will be of interest to our readers: Recent discovery of medium oil in the  Eastend region of Saskatchewan, within the 'rim' of the Williston Basin, brought added strength to oilmen's theories concerning the Basin's oil potential. However, according to oil officials in Regina, the full significance of the find will still depend on improved marketing conditions.  While the well appears definitely able to produce commercially, lack of nearby markets and prohibitive freight rates to more distant markets are expected to delay development. Tidewater Associated Oil is planning some step-out wells.   The first of these will be located about half a mile northwest of the discovery.   This well will commence about the middle of October (We understand this will not happen before Spring). "The discovery well marks the Tidewater group's first strike in Saskatchewan in over three years of intensive exploration.  It is the 19th wildcat attempted by the group, and is actually the first strike of medium gravity oil of indicated commercial quantities in the Saskatchewan portion of the Williston Basin - believed to be one of the last remaining large potential areas on the continent." "The Basin is giving up precious light oil in the Tioga-Williston area of North Dakota and in Saskatchewan tests are under way to make a light oil producer out of the Ratcliffe well, 160 miles to the east of Eastend Crown #1.   Reports state that oil leases in the Ratcliffe district have been selling for as much as $65.00 an acre." "Gravity of oil found at the Eastend well, 21 degrees API is much the same as the crude discovered by Socony Vacuum Exploration near Fosterton. The Fosterton wells are estimated to produce upwards of 300 barrels per day, are free flowing and no induced pressure is required to bring the crude to the surface.  Outside of Fosterton and Eastend, there has been no other commercial discovery of medium gravity oil in the province. To ensure a freer flow of oil the the Eastend well, Tidewater arranged for 'acidization'.  A total of 4750 gallons of acid was used and after the hole had been acidized initial tests indicated production of about 800 barrels a day." 

Tidewater's Successful Producer at Dollard July 2, 1953 Tidewater Associated Oil co., operator for itself and three other major American oil companies on the largest combined exploration block in Saskatchewan, has scored another indicated heavy gravity oil discovery in a wildcat well located 6 miles northwest of its medium oil production in the Eastend area.  The new success, Tidewater Dollard Crown 5-21 is in LSD 7-20-7-20W3, was spudded in by Commonwealth Drilling Co. Ltd.  The discovery forms another link in the chain of Jurassic pools in the southwestern corner of the province, all discovered by Tidewater and possibly pools southwest of Fosterton and southwest of Success. The group has also spudded in another wildcat venture in the Climax district.  The venture, Tidewater Claydon Crown 5-20, is in LSD 5-20-2-21W3 lies 21 miles west by south of Climax, 13 miles southwest of the group's Rapdan Crown 1 medium gravity oil success and 3.5 miles southwest of its Loomis Crown 1 indicated discovery.  It was spudded June 13, by Commonwealth Drilling Co. Ltd. In the Eastend region Tidewater Rapdan Crown 5-1, in LSD 5-1-4-20W3, was completed as a dry hole at 4717 ft. by Commonwealth Drilling Co. Ltd.   It was five miles southeast of the Jurassic discovery Tidewater Rapdan 1. At the June meeting of the San Francisco Security Analysts' Society, Lloyd F. Bayer, senior vice-president of Tidewater Associated Oil Co., told his audience that Saskatchewan exploration by the Tidewater group has indicated "important reserves" and six important fields have been discovered. Mr. Bayer said that 75 wells have been completed in the province, comprising 54 dry wildcats, nine discovery or extension wells and 12 development wells.   The 1953 budget of the group calls for drilling 115 wells of which 62 are to be development and 53 wildcat tests.  The budget expenditure of $10 million will bring to $18 million the cumulative expenditure on exploration and development drilling in Saskatchewan by the Tidewater group since inception of its program in 1950. Mr. Bayer concluded his reference to Saskatchewan with the interesting statement that the four companies "are much encouraged by the success shown thus far." Tidewater Leon Lake Crown 1 5-28-8-19W3 is located on the Scribner farm about six miles northwest of Shaunavon, was drilled to 4779 ft. and has come in as a producer.