Canada beats 3,000 mark for January well approvals

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

On the heels of an all-time record 4,113 new well permits in December, regulators across Canada approved another 3,139 licenses in January — only the fourth time the 3,000 mark has been exceeded in a single month.

Leading the charge are natural gas prospects, including coalbed methane, and bitumen wells.

For Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, 1,993 gas wells were licensed, with 76 listed for coalbed methane, compared with 1,356 gas wells and four coalbed methane wells in January 2003 and 577 for all of 2003. Crude bitumen permits climbed to 179 from 69 a year earlier.

The January tally included 701 exploratory holes, 1,870 development wells and 596 “other” wells, the bulk of them oil sands and bitumen evaluation wells.

EnCana led the operators, with 734 permits, trailed by Canadian Natural Resources at 287 and Husky at 205.