Canada positioned to break 20,000 barrier for well permits

Gary Park

Canada is well on track for a record year of new well permits, ending November with the tally at 25,355, 8.6 percent ahead of the previous 11-month record of 23,341 in 2003 and poised to break the 20,000 mark for the first time.

Regulators across Canada approved 3,221 well licenses in November, easily outpacing November 2003 by 30 percent.

Alberta’s count to the end of November was 19,897, 14 percent ahead of the same period last year, including 13,502 conventional natural gas wells, up 17 percent. Coalbed methane permits soared to 1,397 from 455 a year earlier.

However, conventional oil licenses dipped to 2,120 from 2,417 last year, while bitumen well authorizations slid to 1,021 from 1,260.

Of the other leading provinces, Saskatchewan permits took a sharp drop to 3,733 from 4,426, although British Columbia increased by 264 wells to 1,468.

Leading the operators, EnCana tallied 4,522 permits, close to 18 percent of the industry-wide total, followed by Husky Energy at 1,722, Canadian Natural Resources 1,375, Apache Canada 1,330 and EOG Resources Canada 1,291.

The industry entered December with rig activity on the upswing after November’s active rig count of 548 beat November 2003 by 17 percent.

With Canada’s rig fleet now at 702, the utilization rate in western and northern Canada was 80 percent at the start of December.