As of 8 January 2018 ConocoPhillips Canada Resources was officially awarded significant discovery license SDL 154 on 20 October 2016 located in the Northwest Territores within the Mackenzie Plain Basin. The award was back dated for administrative purposes. ConocoPhillips is a 100% owner in the rights under the 839.78 sq km SDL. In February 2015 ConocoPhillips submitted an application for a Significant Discovery Declaration (SDD) to the Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT) Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations for the Dodo Canyon E-76 and Mirror Lake P-20 shale oil horizontal exploration wells drilled in 2014. Both wells were located in EL 470 and were drilled to test the shale oil potential of the Devonian Canol Formation. The area over which the SDD application is made covers approximately 839.41 sq km, nearly the entire area for EL 470 which encompasses 874.95 sq km. The SDD set in motion the geologic evaluation of lands by NWT government agencies over which the application is made as a prelude to applying for a Significant Discovery License which in itself will extend the term of the lands being applied for. A comment period for directly affected person (DAP) ran through 1 April 2015. ConocoPhillips had until 1 May 2015 to file any comments on submissions from a DAP with the Regulator. The 874.95 sq km block EL 470 was awarded to ConocoPhillips for a work commitment bid of CAD 66,712,035.00 from the 2011 Central Mackenzie Valley Call for Bids. The effective date of the award was 20 December 2011. Background In April 2015 ConocoPhillips shut-in the Dodo Canyon E-76 shale oil wildcat located onshore in EL 470 following testing and after completing a 10 stage Acid, Slickwater, WF103 & WF 125 Flex fracture procedure on 17 February 2014. The company did not release test results but an aerial image of the well location showed a flare burning during testing. The well drilled an 1,00m horizontal section into the Devonian Canol formation and reached a total depth of 2,910 m (1,790 m TVD). The Dodo Canyon E-76 offset the Loon Creek O-06 new-field wildcat drilled as a vertical well in 2013. The Loon Creek O-06 was used as a monitor well to gauge the impact of fracturing on formations up hole. At the same time ConocoPhillips shut-in the Mirror Lake P-20 shale oil wildcat also located onshore in EL 470. The well was also drilled as a horizontal well into the Devonian Canol formation to a total depth of 3,152 m MD. The Mirror Lake P-20 offset the Mirror Lake N-20 drilled as a vertical well in 2013. Plans called for the well to be drilled down to a vertical depth of about 1,600 m and then directionally steered to a well bore attitude of 90 degrees reaching a measured depth of about 2,300 m and a vertical depth of about 1,800 m. The well will then be horizontally drilled an additional 1,000 m to 1,500 m. A ten stage hydraulic fracturing procedure was performed, followed by testing of the well. The Mirror Lake N-20 was used as a monitor well to gauge the impact of fracking up hole. Geology The Mackenzie Plain Basin is one the most heavily explored basins in the Central Mackenzie Valleys with a total of 480 wells being drilled of which 101 are exploratory wells. The basin includes the Norman Wells Field, the only oil producing field in the Northwest Territories.  Mackenzie Plain overlies the southern Peel Trough between the arc of the Cordillera (Mackenzie Mountains) to the west and the flank of the Keele Arch (Franklin Mountains) to the east. A westward-thickening wedge of Cretaceous-Tertiary strata overlies a broad Lower Paleozoic syncline with a gently-dipping eastern limb and a more steeply-dipping western limb rising to outcrop as the front ranges of the Mackenzie Mountains. Lower Paleozoic strata outcropping in the Franklin Mountains border the Peel Trough to the east. The trough widens to the northwest where the Mackenzie Mountains swing westwards. The Mackenzie Foldbelt in this northern area extends beneath Mackenzie Plain. To the south, the trough becomes increasingly constricted as the Keele Arch reaches a terminus close to the Mackenzie Mountain front at about 64Â°N. The entire region has been affected by compressional tectonics, expressed as long wavelength folds (especially in the north), bedding-parallel detachments (beneath Mackenzie Plain), and thrust faults outcropping in the Franklin Mountains.
ConocoPhillips (100%) was officially awarded license SDL 154, located in the Northwest Territories.