Development of Judy Creek - A Case Study

Abstract

This paper reviews engineering considerations associated with thedevelopment of the Judy Creek Beaverhill Lake oil pool. The orderly developmentof the pool was facilitated by early studies of drilling and completionprogrammes, production practices and reservoir problems. The reservoir studyhas served as a basis for unitization and pressure maintenance, which becameeffective less than four years after discovery.

Introduction

The Judy Creek Beaverhill Lake oil pool was discovered by Imperial OilLimited in February, 1959, two years after the Home-Regent discovery of SwanHills, several miles to the north. Judy Creek is located about 100 milesnorthwest of the city of Edmonton in the heavily wooded Swan Hills area(Figure 1). Other Beaverhill Lake reef pools in the area are: DeerMountain, Swan Hills, Virginia Hills, Judy Creek West, Carson Creek North,Carson Creek (gas), Kaybob and Snipe Lake. These pools all produce from theSwan Hills member of the Beaverhill Lake formation of Middle Devonian age.

Judy Creek has provided an excellent proving ground for technical advancesduring the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to review briefly some ofthe advanced techniques that were applied in the development of the pool.

Initial Operations

Figure 2 is a detailed map of the Judy Creek area. The discoverywell, 16-31-63-10, located on a Crown drilling reservation, struck oil at adepth of 8,600 feet. Immediately, an exploratory effort was launched, with sixstepouts begun simultaneously to help define the reservoir extent. Four of thesix were subsequently abandoned; two found Beaverhill Lake oil.

At the time of discovery, access to Judy Creek consisted only of a wintertrail, with spring break-up expected in three to four weeks time. It wasnecessary to stockpile equipment and prepare lease sites for the plannedstepouts. Within one month, 550 truck-loads of material, including fivedrilling rigs, Cat equipment, camps, mud, cement, tubular goods, diesel oil,and gasoline, were assembled at the prepared locations. In anticipation ofproduction, 24 miles of temporary pipeline were strung north from Judy Creek tojoin Federated Pipeline's main line north of the Freeman river.