Canada notches second best rig count in 2003, with 415 of 672 rigs working

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

An end-of-year surge gave Canada its second highest annual rig count, with an average 415 of 672 available units active in the field through 2003.

That was up 115 rigs from 2002, but trailed the 424 working rigs in 1997, when the rig fleet consisted of 461 units.

Utilization of the fleet averaged 62 percent for the year vs. 45 percent in 2002, but far behind 1997’s 84 percent.

Alberta had an average 307 rigs at work, trailing only the 310 units in 1997; British Columbia scaled new heights with 61 rigs active, beating the previous record of 52 in 2001 and easily surpassing 2002’s 38 rigs.

Saskatchewan logged an average 42 active rigs, a gain of 27 percent from 2002, but well short of the record 75 working rigs in 1997.

Northern Canada posted an average three working rigs, the most since 1999.

Of Canada’s 875 service rigs, an average 444 were operating through 2003 vs. 446 of 913 rigs in 2002.

Preliminary figures show 19,957 wells were completed last year for a total of 67.64 million feet, including 19.4 million feet for exploratory wells.

Alberta recorded 14,968 completions, followed by Saskatchewan at 4,006, British Columbia at 775, Manitoba 94, Eastern Canada 106 and Northern Canada eight.

Exploratory and development gas wells accounted for 14,010 of the completions or about 70 percent.

Regulators issued 18,244 development and 6,360 exploration licenses, with Northern Canada claiming nine development and 23 exploration wells. Alberta was easily the pacesetter, with 13,894 development permits and 4,314 exploration approvals.