Husky-led partnership gets NWT license
Gary Park For Petroleum News
In the midst of a bleak winter drilling season in the Canadian Arctic there was a shred of positive news when a Husky Energy-led partnership got recognition for an oil and gas discovery in the Central Mackenzie Valley of the Northwest Territories.
The National Energy Board and the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs awarded a Significant Discovery License for the Stewart D-57 find, which flowed in 2006 from two intervals at 5 million cubic feet per day, confirming a hydrocarbon column of at least 160 feet.
An application has been submitted to the NEB for a significant discovery license for Summit Creek B-44, which logged the region’s first discovery in 85 years in 2004.
The B-44 well tested at 20 million cubic feet per day of gas and 6,000 barrels per day of oil and condensate, indicating a hydrocarbon column of 600 feet.
Significant discovery licenses give the owners indefinite tenure, extending the expiry term from a maximum nine years of exploration to the end of production.
The significant discovery license for the D-57 well covers 5,700 acres within exploration license 397, although the well was drilled on a parcel in the Tulita District Freehold parcel M-38, covering 4,430 acres. License provides additional drilling locations International Frontier Resources, which has an 8.2 percent interest in the significant discovery license and a 7.5 percent interest in the M-38 parcel, rated the significant discovery license as important because it provides additional drilling locations on both the significant discovery license land and on parcel M-38.
International Frontier is also participating for a 15 percent interest in the Dahadinni B-20 well and the Keele River L-52 well, both operated by Husky on exploration license 423.
Dahadinni B-20 is currently drilling, targeting a total depth of 8,460 feet to evaluate prospects in the Devonian and Silurian formations.
Drilling has also started on Keele River L-52, with a projected depth of 2,700 feet to evaluate an oil prospect.
International Frontier holds interests ranging from 8.22 percent to 25 percent in four exploration licenses covering 1 million gross acres and 42.11 percent in five freehold sub-surface parcels encompassing 55,000 gross acres.
In Colville Hills, about 150 miles north of the current drilling program, 2-D seismic is being shot on exploration license 432 at a cost of C$10 million. A C$12 million 2-D program was completed last fall on exploration licenses 429 and 445.
International Frontier has a 25 percent stake in the three Colville licenses covering 568,000 gross acres, operated by BG International with a 75 percent interest.
Commercial quantities of oil could be tied into the underutilized Enbridge crude line from Norman Wells to northern Alberta, but gas is dependent for now on a go-ahead for the Mackenzie Gas Project.
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