Oil production in the M.D. of Lesser Slave River (LSR) has seen significant growth in the past five years, says Councillor Norm Seatter of the M.D. of LSR.
Seatter has 48 years of experience working in the oil industry, all of it local to the area. He says there are two major pipelines in the area: the Plains Pipeline, running from Norman Wells, N.W.T. to Edmonton, and the Pembina Pipeline which connects the Nipisi Terminal north o Slave Lake to Edmonton.
The M.D. of LSR is home to the Clearwater Oil Play, a formation that spans over 120 townships, says Seatter. One township is 36 square miles; therefore the oil play covers an area far beyond the municipal district itself.
The deposit is a heavy oil in shale. Seatter compares the oil play to the Wabasca oil field for comparison. He says the Wabasca oil sands have been producing since the 1980s and cover 15 townships. The oil there also produces sand as a byproduct, says Seatter, making it more difficult to refine. The Clearwater oil play, however, is deposited in shale and therefore doesn’t create sand.
The formation is approximately 800 meters below surface, says Seatter. Once companies drill down and set steel pipe casing in the well, the pipes are directed vertically in the formation and then they whip stock out in a series of 10 or a dozen laterals off the one main line. Doing so will expose 8-10 km or more of formation producing into one well. A pad is then built to access the wells. According to Seatter, one pad can accommodate six to eight wells, meaning the footprint to drain a large area is small in comparison to the area being drained.
Seatter says production numbers in 2017 for the Slave Lake area and M.D. of LSR was 250,000 cubic meters, which is equivalent to 4,500 barrels a day. Comparatively, local production numbers in 2024 were 5.5 million cubic meters, equal to 94,800 barrels a day.
“Pipelines and wells have become a significant part of our revenue,” says Seatter. He says the Mitsue and Nipisi oil fields were developed in the sixties and were a major economic driver for the development and growth of Slave Lake. Now, those formations have decreased production. Spur and Tamarack are planning to drill approximately 100 wells a year per for the next five years, says Seatter. In the M.D. alone, 231 wells were drilled in 2021, 321 wells were drilled in 2022, 307 wells were drilled in 2023, 298 wells were drilled in 2024, and 355 wells were drilled in 2025.
Geo Expro released an article about the Clearwater oil play in May 2025 titled ‘The Hottest Play in Canada.’ The article cited not only the size of the deposit and the type of oil, but a recent breakthrough in drilling technology that allows the deposit to be more accessible than it would have been previously.
“It’s nice to see the oil industry thriving again because of this play,” says Seatter. He doesn’t know of many areas in Alberta that are experiencing the same oil and economic boom.
By Sara Driedger, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeside Leader, https://www.lakesideleader.com/
Original Published on Mar 25, 2026 at 09:00
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