NORDIC Oil and Gas Ltd. - Preeceville/Endeavour, SK
Gearing Up for Saskatchewan Drilling Program
[ http://www.nordicoilandgas.com/Saskoilarticle1109.pdf ]
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The Preeceville / Endeavour Property
[ http://www.nordicoilandgas.com/preec.html ]
The Preeceville region is, in the Company's view, an area of great promise and potential. The Company has an 80% interest in 31,999 gross acres of P&NG leases with rights to the basement.
Nordic entered into a strategic development agreement with Hunt Oil Company whereby Nordic has secured an interest in six townships of Hunt-owned land in Preeceville, Saskatchewan. The ensuing exploration work on the lands will result in Hunt having the option to participate on a 50-50 go forward basis with Nordic, or allow Nordic to retain a 100% interest in the land with Hunt earning a Gross Overriding Royalty.
In October 2007, the Company engaged the services of Petro-Find Geochem Ltd. to undertake hydrocarbon soil gas surveys in its most northerly permit in Townships 40, Ranges 4 and 5 W2 in Preeceville. During the course of sampling, the Consultant discovered oil seeps. Laboratory analysis on the oil seeps confirmed the presence of oil in the samples received. All together, evidence of 34 seeps was been found on the property, of which three were very extensive.
In the early summer of 2008, the Company drilled its initial two wells in Preeceville in search of oil. The first well showed some indications of the presence of oil during the drilling - an oil film and droplets of oil in the drilling fluid coming over the shaker were found, and that some oil staining was seen on some samples that were taken. Furthermore, some samples had good porosity. However, due to the intersection of faults, the well deviated and the drilling tools became lodged in the hole and cannot be dislodged. As a result, the well was abandoned.
Drilling of the second well was completed and the Company discovered oil in two formations. The well reached the basement and the Company then drilled a further 15 metres of overhole to allow for production. Unfortunately, following the completion of the perforating and testing, it was determined that the well did not have any production capabilities.
When Nordic first began exploring this region, it was searching for what is known as the ‘Prairie Evaporate Salt Collapse Edge’. The Company now believes it has found the Salt Collapse Edge on its original holdings and these six townships contain a salt cap, which is acting as a trap for oil and/or gas. It also believes that with new drilling technology now available, the Company will be successful in unlocking the enormous reserves of natural gas that industry consultants have confirmed are in the region. A new test well will be drilled and will be utilizing specialized equipment on the drilling of the shallower portion of the well, thereby allowing the gas to flow. New 2-D seismic is being shot in Preeceville over the 6 new townships.
The Company is poised to return to Saskatchewan this fall to drill a new exploration well near Endeavour. New 2-D seismic in the region has been shot, processed and interpreted, and based upon the analysis of the recently completed seismic in the area, a location has been identified and Nordic pans to license and drill the well as soon as possible. The site is now being surveyed and the Company is in the midst of pricing the costs of services.
Interpretation of the new seismic indicated a strong anomaly in both the Red River and Winnipegosis. In 1958, Imperial Oil shot seismic in the area and subsequently drilled an exploration well at 10-25-35-4 W2. Although they missed the target, the well demonstrated there was oil migration in the Endeavour area, as oil was found in six separate formations. The new seismic shot by Nordic confirms the new location is on a structural high (which was not the case back in 1958) and that both a salt cap, which the Company feels acts as a seal, and reservoir are present at this new location.
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LETTER: HUGHES: Are you being fracked?
Tisdale Recorder, November 24, 2010
It seems that the days of sticking a pipe into the ground and pumping up the oil to feed our addiction to the stuff are over – the easy oil is gone. Now, after years of courting big oil and gas companies with lax regulations and promises of low or non-existent royalties, Saskatchewan is currently under frenzied assault to suck up every last drop of natural gas, oil and coalbed methane using a process called hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Calgary author, Andrew Nikiforuk, describes hydraulic fracturing as “a brute force technology used in 90 per cent of all unconventional oil and gas well drilling which has allowed companies to exploit vast shale deposits across the continent over the last decade.” The highly pressurized fracking fluids cause mini-earthquakes which breaks open the pores of gas-bearing rock in unpredictable ways along horizontal reaches stretching an average of 1.6 kilometres underground.
Within the last 5 years, some 1000 gas and oil wells have been drilled (12 – 15 boreholes per ‘pad’), mainly over the Bakken Formation in the southern part of the province, although there may be as many or more in northwestern Saskatchewan. And, in the northeast, we have discovered the Pasquia Hills Oil Shale Project owned by Calgary-based Oilsands Quest Inc. with exploration permits on 490,000 acres surrounding the small town of Hudson Bay in beautiful northeastern Saskatchewan.
Simply put, fracking involves injecting, under extreme pressure, enormous volumes of water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet into rock formations to force dense gas and oil shales to fracture, or crack, enabling the gas or oil to escape and flow back to the surface where it is piped into storage tanks and to market. The industry can achieve faster payback and further increase the scope of fracking by many kilometers by drilling horizontal wells, where the drill bit is steered along a horizontal trajectory thousands of additional feet – out of sight under farms, towns, and cities.
Sydney, Australia is the latest victim, with drilling to begin within months only blocks from city center. In the meantime, citing health and environmental concerns, Pittsburgh’s city council unanimously passed a ban on natural gas drilling within city limits.
Not surprisingly, there are many major environmental and health concerns with this disaster-in-the-making activity.
Millions of gallons of fresh water (from 5,000 – 3 million gallons, 100-200 dusty and noisy truckloads per well), possibly coming from the same source used for your household drinking wells, ranching and farming. Apparently, "a single permit held by Encana gave it access to water at 71 different locations (in BC) for a combined daily maximum of 16,117 cubic metres or nearly six-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools worth of water per day."
Between 20 and 70 percent of this water remains underground, lost forever from the finite supply on the Planet. And, since no one knows where the aquifers are, their size or their shape, the risk of contaminating your precious underground water is enormous – despite industry assurances that this is a safe procedure; that pipes don’t leak, that cement doesn’t crack!
The produced water, loaded with hundreds of unknown chemicals, which does manage to come to the surface cannot be reused in another well and is placed into closed storage tanks or pumped into large, open holding pits and left to evaporate. This evaporation allows toxic, volatile chemicals to be released into the air and it concentrates the non-volatiles in the pits. Also, evaporation pits have been known to leak or overflow, potentially contaminating the soil and local water sources. Out of the chemicals known to be used in hydraulic fracturing for which basic information is available, 96 percent provide a warning about eye and/or skin harm, 94 percent warn about respiratory system harm, and 49 percent warn about brain or neurological harm that can occur either when the chemicals are inhaled or when they come into contact with skin. (Feb. 2009 study, “Products and Chemicals Used in Fracturing”, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange)
In natural gas fracturing, up to 435 chemical products are known to be used, many of them carcinogenic or toxic to humans and wildlife, even in very small doses. Apparently, Alberta Environment found the human carcinogen, hexavalent chromium (Chromium-6 – think Erin Brockovich) in Rosebud, AB area well water – where tap water has enough natural gas in it to actually ignite! Great secrecy (to keep the company’s ‘competitive edge’) surrounds the list of chemicals used which prevents landowners and, in some cases, government agencies from conducting proper water quality tests.
So, if there’s a knock on your door one day and a representative from an oil and gas company is there, saying they own the ‘sub-surface rights’ to your property and they’re about to drill for natural gas – without your knowledge or permission - you’ll know you’ve been fracked!
Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK