Canadians break horizontal drilling records

Although first-half well completions across Canada lagged 8.8 percent behind the same period last year, horizontal drilling in three of the four western provinces set new records.

Overall, the industry posted 3,813 development completions and 485 exploratory wells (excluding experimental wells), lagging behind the 2012 pace of 3,999 and 723.

Oil well completions (development and exploratory) in Western Canada dropped to 3,510 from 3,633, while natural gas-targeted wells slumped to 716 from 953.

Operators in Alberta completed 2,200 oil wells, the third highest count on record, surpassed only by 2,499 in 2011 and 2,261 in 1997.

Producers in Alberta posted 482 well completions for the first six months, off from 692 a year earlier and a mere blip compared with the 6,988 gas completions in the January-June period of 2006.

Horizontal drilling, which is leading the drive in unconventional formations, saw rigs released on 3,385 wells, up 6.35 percent from the previous record of 3,183 wells in the same period last year, and a 26 percent gain over 2,692 wells in the first half of 2011.

Alberta (which released rigs on 2,050 new horizontal wells beat the comparable count last year of 1,941), Saskatchewan (859 vs. 783) and Manitoba (235 vs. 225) all set new benchmarks with the technology.

British Columbia reported finishing 241 horizontal wells, seven more than last year, but below the record 312 set in 2004.

Rigs were released on 853 directional wells, down from 950 a year ago.

Member companies of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors booked 45,607 operating days to the end of June in Western and Northern Canada, excluding experimental wells, off 11.6 percent from the 51,565 days last year.

Total meters drilled dropped two percent to 9.83 million meters, but the average length-depth of wells edged up to 2,020 meters per well from 2,013 meters, while the average time taken to drill was trimmed to 9.4 days from 10.4 days.

Precision Drilling was the leading contractor, drilling 1,559 wells totalling 2.58 million meters, followed by Ensign Drilling at 972 wells and 1.39 million meters.

—Gary Park