Canadian gas permits headed toward 19,000 for the year

Gary Park

Natural gas continues to hold sway in Canada, regardless of the rising tide of forecasts that oil could reach US$50 a barrel as early as the end of September.

Industry figures shows gas well completions have rocketed 34 percent ahead of last year’s record pace to reach 8,379 by the end of July.

For the seventh-month period, regulators in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia issued 11,455 gas well permits, 18 percent ahead of last year’s pace and within sight of more than 19,000 for the year.

Gas completions in the three provinces added another 909 during July, or 72 percent of all wells that were rig released.

More than 6,000 of this year’s gas wells were drilled below 3,750 feet.

Of the gas total to the end of July, 26 percent were listed as exploratory, compared with only 16 percent of the 2,454 oil wells.

Of the licenses issued, 3,060 were for oil targets, down 14 percent from the same period of 2003.

EnCana accounted for 3,323 new well permits over the seven months, or 21 percent of the industry tally. The most active of the other operators were EOG Resources Canada, Husky Energy and Apache Canada.