Husky abandons Central Mackenzie wildcat

The Canadian North has recorded another disappointment from its limited winter exploration season.

A Husky Energy-operated partnership has abandoned as a dry hole the first of two wildcat wells in the Central Mackenzie area of the Northwest Territories.

International Frontier Resources, which has a 15 percent stake, said Keele River L-52 well, testing a Cretaceous-age oil reservoir to a depth of 2,700 feet on Exploration License 423, failed to yield a discovery. It said a second exploration well on EL 423, Dahadinni B-20, is drilling towards a targeted total depth of 8,460 feet.

Both wells are 45 miles south of the Norman Wells area, where an aging oil field needs fresh discoveries to replenish an underused Enbridge crude pipeline to northern Alberta. Husky has a 75 percent interest in the two wells, with International Frontier holding 15 percent and Pacific Rodera 10 percent.

The Keele River dry hole followed disclosure of two dry holes by MGM Energy in the western Mackenzie Delta. A third well is drilling and scheduled for completion by mid-April.

—Gary Park