When the Pembina Cardium Discovery Well was drilled, the crews knew the project was risky, dubbed a rank wildcat drill, with only the hope of striking oil existing. Little was known about the Cardium sandstone the drillers would encounter between 5310 and 5370 feet, and they were venturing into relatively uncharted territory. Excitement grew on May 15, 1953, as the well was logged in anticipation of significant findings. However, initial tests revealed no oil flow, leaving the crew with mixed feelings and disappointment.

 

Determined not to give up, the team decided to pull back the drilling operations for further evaluation. It was then that they made a critical discovery: the bottom 110 feet of the drill string contained a combination of drilling mud and formation oil. This unexpected find sparked renewed interest among the crew, prompting Socony, the drilling company, to conduct further tests on the promising 30 feet of sand. But the results resembled many other oil shows found in Western Canada that ultimately produced little or no oil. Nevertheless, there was always a chance that this could be the exception.

 

In a wire sent on March 27 to Socony's Calgary office, geologist Arnie Nielsen recommended running sidewall cores and electric logs. The well log showed that the top of the Cardium sand was actually 16 feet higher than had been determined, which meant that the section covered by the drill stem test might have missed the best part of the sand. Nielsen suggested cementing a string of seven-inch casing in the hole from the surface to a depth of 5,428 feet and then deepening the hole to its projected depth of 9,400 feet. This casing would protect the Cardium sandstone from being clogged by drilling mud during the process. Later, the Cardium could be further tested through perforations made in the seven-inch casing. The string of intermediate casing was set, and drilling resumed, although not without difficulties.

 

The well reached a depth of 9,425 feet in May, becoming the first in Canada to indicate the presence of oil in the Cardium sandstone formation. However, initial tests suggested that while there was oil potential, production rates were low. The spring thaw made it difficult to transport drilling mud and supplies to the well site due to the poor road conditions in the Pembina area. Despite the challenges, a perforating gun was brought in and used to create small holes in the casing, hoping to access the oil in the Cardium sandstone.

 

Unfortunately, tests revealed only minimal amounts of oil, indicating that the well was not producing as expected. Nielsen and Jim Warke of Socony's producing department, who had supervised the drilling operations, then considered using hydraulic fracturing to enhance oil production from the tight Cardium sandstone. This was a new process developed by Amoco. This process involves pumping a mixture of fluid and 3,000 pounds of sand at a pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch into the formation, causing the tight sandstone to crack, leading to the flow of oil into the wellbore.

 

The well was eventually completed in 88 days, on July 1, 1953. Initially, heavy summer rains in the area had made roads so impassable that the oil could not be trucked out, and the well was shut in temporarily for two months. However, on an extended 30-day test in September, the well sustained an oil production rate of better than 200 barrels per day. The Cardium was neither the first oil well nor the first Resource Play in western Canada, but it was the first of many to be developed on a massive scale. Within a year, the oil boom was on, and more than 70 oil companies set up their field-based operations in Drayton Valley.

 

The Pembina Discovery well is located approximately 3.5 miles west and 1.5 miles south of the Violet Grove town site. At one point, its discovery was one of the largest in North America. It also marked the first discovery of Cardium oil in Alberta, one of Canada's first large stratigraphic oil traps—all from a wildcat well that could have so easily been abandoned.