Pioneer continues aggressive drilling program throughout Western Canada

Gary Park

While selling off large-scale deepwater production properties in the Gulf of Mexico, Pioneer Natural Resources shows no signs of scaling back in Canada.

The Dallas-based company has a full drilling schedule for Alberta and British Columbia, both shallow gas prospects and coalbed methane.

Scott Sheffield, Pioneer’s chairman and chief executive officer, told a conference call that 150 additional shallow gas targets are being readied for drilling at Chinchaga in northern British Columbia and Alberta, while drilling of the Horseshoe Canyon coalbed methane play in Alberta is likely to grow over the next four years.

In addition to boosting its Horseshoe Canyon program by 100 wells to 180 this year and a similar number in 2006, the company is initiating four horizontal wells in Alberta’s Mannville coalbed methane formation later this year, joining a gathering pace of activity in what could be Canada’s largest coalbed methane play.

Nexen and two private companies, Trident Exploration and Red Willow Production, are in the forefront of tackling a technically challenging play that is thought to hold 412 billion cubic feet of commercially recoverable gas in a 3-4 trillion cubic foot resource.

If Pioneer joins the stable of coalbed methane producers it will be a welcome addition to a relatively small group, with Apache Canada, EnCana and MGV Energy (a unit of Quicksilver Resources) contributing an estimated 90 percent of Alberta’s estimated 180 million cubic feet per day.

The latest industry figures show Alberta is closing in on 200 million cubic feet per day of coalbed methane production.