Calgary-based Husky Energy is sharpening its focus on oil and liquids-rich plays as the conventional sector of the Western Canada Sedimentary basin goes into decline, said chief executive officer Aim Ghosh.
He told his company’s annual meeting April 26 that Husky has “built a substantial resource position and the capacity to develop” those prospects.
Of the 400 wells Husky plans to drill in the basin this year “over a third of them are focused on oil and liquids-rich gas resource plays,” he said.
“That gives you a sense of how focused we are and how fast we are moving into transformation of this basin and, although it’s early days, we are encouraged by the results,” Ghosh said.
Husky’s first-quarter results showed that 36 wells were drilled in the liquids-rich gas plays, nine at Ansell in west-central Alberta, including one vertical Cardium well, three horizontal Cardium wells, two Wilrich horizontal wells and three multi-zone vertical wells.
The company has previously hinted that Ansell could contribute 15,000 barrels per day of the 30,000 bpd targeted for Western Canada by 2015.
Two horizontal wells were drilled to evaluate the Duvernay liquids-rich gas play at Kaybob in northern Alberta, while test results from a horizontal well drilled in late 2011 have met expectations and should be on production during the current quarter.
One horizontal well was drilled to evaluate the Montney formation on acreage in Alberta’s Sinclair region.
Across the portfolio, 24 horizontal oil resource plays and two vertical pilots wells were drilled in the quarter.
At Oungre Bakken four horizontals drilled
At the Oungre Bakken project in southeast Saskatchewan, four horizontal wells were drilled, while three horizontal wells were drilled in southwestern Saskatchewan’s Lower Shaunavon project and eight horizontal wells were drilled in the same region’s Viking formation.
In the northern Cardium oil resource trend, three horizontal wells were drilled at Wapiti and five were completed, while four wells were completed at Kakwa.
One horizontal Rainbow Muskwa shale oil resource well was drilled and operations started on a two-well pad, with production testing measuring up to expectations.
Chief Operating Officer Rob Peabody told analysts Husky is “on track and seeing good results” from the push to transition one-third of its oil production — which averaged 222,000 bpd in the first quarter — to the resource plays.
But neither he nor Ghosh would disclose 30-day initial production numbers, saying that information would have to wait until late 2012.
Ghosh said Husky is pleased with its land position of about 800,000 net acres and nothing has happened so far that “causes us concern about our long-term plan to reposition.”
“We have some confidence that we are not chasing a pie-in-the-sky dream,” he said.
