Number Two was the discovery for Kerr, as it hit a deeper, larger pool of oil. But #1 told everyone they were in the right place. Farmers' tractors not pump
jacks—that's what you saw around Leduc back then. Until
'47. Leduc #2 followed #1 in May, and by the end of the year, Imperial alone had 21 wells producing in the Leduc Field.
Kerr has preserved the story in his book Leduc. In it, he credits geologist J. B. Tyrell with unwittingly revealing the first clue in his "meticulous" notes and
sketches" of the rocky outcrop along the North Saskatchewan River:
"...the beds of the last 30 miles down the river... seemed to be lying perfectly horizontal," Tyrell reported back in 1886. A year later he mapped the surface expression of the giant Devonian coral reef
below—but its secret remained undiscovered for nearly 60 years, writes Kerr.
"'No oil in Alberta'—that was the cry of the struggling oil industry with its declining
shallow stripper wells during the summer of 1946, producing no more than about 15,000 barrels a day," Kerr recalls. "This meant importing crude from Montana to supply the two small refineries in Calgary. It also meant Imperial Oil researching a
synthetic gas plant to make gasoline out of the shallow gas fields of eastern Alberta."
But Imperial Oil seismic maps showed an anomaly—an irregular rock
formation—deep below the ground. "A persistent geophysicist, Ray Walters...
was determined to check it out," Kerr continues. Walters pronounced it worthy of drilling. "There was no geological explanation to justify it,
except Ray's doggedness which would ultimately crown him
'billion barrel oil finder.'" Before the 13th, Imperial had already drilled down more than 5,000 feet. "When they took the core out, it showed clear, light amber-gold—you could smell the oil," explains Kerr. However, "the realization that we were dealing with an entirely new rock formation" would take a while to sink in, he suggests.
Hunter picked the day to begin production and Imperial invited media, government officials and local business leaders. All did not go smoothly at first, Kerr notes in his book. The sand line sent down to swab or suck oil to
the surface broke and the crew scrambled to repair it. In his book, Kerr quotes Hal Yerxa, CJCA Radio as he reported live:
"That swooshing sound you just heard was the Imperial Oil
Limited No. 1 well at Leduc, Alberta coming into production. The
oil started flowing under its own pressure at four o'clock this
afternoon... in what may be a momentous occasion in the oil
world... Suddenly... there was... a great gush of oil and water,
almost halfway up the derrick. And what you hear in the background
now is that oil, running into the pit at the side..."
Heritage Community Foundation Presents
