Winnipegosis Case History: Tableland, Saskatchewan

Neil E. Orr, William Martindale

The geology and history of exploration in the Tableland area of southeast Saskatchewan will be reviewed in relation to a major Middle Devonian Winnipegosis oil discovery made in 1986 by Home Oil. Southern Saskatchewan is underlain by the northern third of the Williston basin. Although rich oil deposits have been found in the Devonian of the basin on the American side, dry holes have been the rule in Saskatchewan except for the Hummingbird Upper Devonian Birdbear discovery in 1966. The long history of failures in the Winnipegosis Formation has led to a general reluctance in the industry to drill deep wells especially with today's lower crude prices. Based on geology, seismic data, and modeling, Home Oil drilled Tableland 08-22-002-09W2M in February 1986 and encountered an il-bearing Winnipegosis reef. This well has the highest production rate of any well in Saskatchewan and is the first commercially significant Winnipegosis well in a basinal setting within the Williston basin. A state-of-the-art pseudo 3-D processing of all the existing 2-D seismic data was performed to aid in choosing development well locations. As a result of this discovery, deep exploration plays in southeast Saskatchewan are now being pursued aggressively by many companies.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91030©1988 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, 20-23 March 1988.