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EnCana, Talisman hot on trail of British Columbia prospects
Gary Park, Petroleum News Calgary correspondent
EnCana Corp. and Talisman Energy Inc. are stepping up the tempo in northeastern British Columbia to bring new natural gas reserves into production and offset the rapid decline of the region’s celebrated Ladyfern field.
EnCana plans to increase production from the Greater Sierra area by about 300 million cubic feet per day, raising output to 450 million cubic feet per day by 2005.
The company, which holds 2.35 million net acres in the area, says that based on its expertise in developing Greater Sierra’s Jean Marie play it is counting on recovering half of the estimated 4.1 trillion cubic feet of Jean Marie reserves.
To handle the expected increase, an EnCana unit has requested National Energy Board approval for a C$55 million, 50-mile pipeline with initial capacity of 100 million cubic feet per day over 10 years.
The big Canadian independent has indicated Greater Sierra is the linchpin of its hopes for doubling British Columbia production over the next five years.
It has 600 drilling locations identified in the province and, in the Greater Sierra area alone, it has nine gas plants, 500 miles of pipeline and plans to drill about 120 wells annually.
Two new Monkman wells on production Meanwhile, Talisman said March 26 it has drilled two successful gas wells at Monkman, which now accounts for close to 10 percent of its North American production.
Both wells tested at rates of more than 20 million cubic feet per day and have recently been put into production.
Talisman is operator at 73.05 percent of the Bullmoose C-86-E well, which was drilled to a depth of 9,570 feet. Its partners are Burlington Resources Canada Energy Ltd. 19.345 percent, Dominion Exploration Partnership 4.375 percent and Enco Resources Co. 3.255 percent.
The second well, Talisman Burlington Sukunka C-83-K, was a joint effort by Talisman and Burlington and was drilled to a total measured depth of 12,034 feet. It met with what Talisman described as “large volumes” of gas.
Talisman said it intends to spend C$40 million and participate in five wells to development the Monkman area this year.
Talisman’s Monkman properties currently produce about 85 million cubic feet per day.
A follow up to the West Sukunka B-79-J well brought on stream in September 2002 is expected to be completed by mid-year and two more deep wells are planned for 2003 as Talisman pursues its projections of a large regional play that could hold 1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves.
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