Duvernay Oil makes tight sands gas discovery west of Dawson Creek

Don Whiteley

Petroleum News contributing writer

British Columbia’s tight sands gas plays continue to rack up successes, as junior exploration company Duvernay Oil Corp. says it has made a significant natural gas discovery west of Dawson Creek.

In a press release, the company said a 13-well program has tapped into a gas pool in the company’s Sunset-Groundbirch-Saturn area with potential recoverable reserves of 250 billion cubic feet. The company says the wells are currently producing 10 million cubic feet of gas per day, and will increase to 30 million cubic feet per day by the middle of 2005. The gas play, part of the larger Triassic-Doig tight gas sand formation, is estimated to be 80 kilometers long and two kilometers wide. The find is small compared to EnCana Corp.’s Greater Sierra (2.5 trillion cubic feet) and Cutbank Ridge tight gas plays, but adds weight to the growing importance of the play.

Tight gas, found in porous rocks such as sandstone, is more costly to produce and often requires fracturing techniques to get the gas flowing. But with gas prices well above $4 per mcf, the economics work.

Duvernay controls another 115 potential drilling locations on the play, but it will take two to three years of successful exploration and drilling to realize the upper end of the reserve potential.

The initial Groundbirch discovery has been delineated by 13 gas wells, along with a series of successful exploration new pool wildcats both north and south of Groundbirch. Duvernay has a 100 percent working interest in the majority of these wells. Gilbert Laustsen Jung Associates Ltd. prepared a reserve report for the company, identifying average proved reserves of 1.7 bcf per well bore and 1.9 bcf proved plus probable reserves per well bore in the initial Groundbirch pool.

Gas production is being processed at a new sour gas treating facility, constructed by Duvernay in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Duvernay will drill eight to 10 delineation wells along the trend in the next 12 months in an effort to further refine reserve and production potential.