The hunt for oil and natural gas in western and northern Canada made solid gains in the first three months of 2005, with exploration well completions posting a 12 percent increase to 1,391.
Over the same period, the number of development wells dropped 4 percent to 3,678 completions.
A key part of the trend was a shift to deeper exploratory wells, with the combined depth of all wells reaching 8.86 million feet compared with 7.81 million feet in the opening quarter last year.
The industry logged gas discoveries from 993 wells and oil finds from 193 wells.
Total well completions, including dry holes and service wells, showed a marginal increase to 5,095 from 5,075 a year earlier, with gas accounting for almost three-quarters of the completions.
Wells spudded for the January-March period edged down to 6,282 from 6,353 last year, due largely to an early spring breakup.
EnCana was the front runner among operators, finishing 1,262 wells, a sharp decline of 325 wells from last year, while Canadian Natural Resources was second with 499 completions, down 99 wells from 2004.
EnCana recorded almost 854,000 total feet of exploratory hole, followed by Burlington Resources Canada at 717,000 feet, Devon Canada at 590,000 feet and Canadian Natural at 524,000 feet.
The provincial breakdown showed EnCana at 1,107 wells in Alberta, ahead of Canadian Natural at 293 wells, Husky Energy at 264 wells and Apache Canada at 256 wells. Canadian Natural led the pack in British Columbia at 176 wells, trailed by EnCana at 119 and Burlington at 98.
Drilling contractors who belong to the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors established a new benchmark, with an average 598 of the available 733 rigs active during the quarter, pushing ahead of last year’s 577.
FirstEnergy Capital predicts that contractors will book close to 140,000 drilling days this year (after recording just over 40,000 in the first quarter), while rig utilization for 2005 will average 53.2 percent, compared with 62.3 percent in the first quarter.
—Gary Park
