Albertans have been drillin’ in the rain

All-time record rainfalls in parts of Alberta during June were not enough to wash away a strong first-half drilling performance.

And what ground was lost is being rapidly recovered this month, with a record 568 rigs at work in mid-July, or three-quarters of the available fleet, an unprecedented showing for the height of summer.

However, the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors has been forced to revise its 2005 prediction to 24,099 wells — still a record — from its target of 24,205 set in October 2004.

To the year’s midpoint, operators completed 10,158 wells, just 2 percent behind the benchmark 10,349 in the same period last year, with June’s tally off sharply at 1,276 finished wells from 1,883 a year earlier.

But the intentions were signaled in the 2,476 well permits approved in June, edging ahead of the 2,363 issued in June 2004.

Alberta logged 7,932 completions for the six months, only 1 percent short of the 2004 mark, but June tumbled by one-third to 981.

Saskatchewan also suffered from soggy conditions, lowering its first-half count to 1,257 from last year’s 1,369 and British Columbia backed off slightly at 871 well from 881. Member companies of the drilling contractors’ association reported 19,783 operating days in the second quarter, 16 percent ahead of 2004, but typically less than half the peak winter quarter’s tally of 40,359.

Leading the contractors were Precision Drilling, which worked on 3,164 wells in the January-June period, trailed by Ensign Drilling at 2,210.

EnCana led the pack of 412 operators, posting 2,105 completions or one-fifth of the industry total, reporting a pace-setting 320 exploratory gas finds.

Next were Canadian Natural Resources at 739 wells and Husky Energy at 598.

The busiest explorers were EnCana, which racked up 1.53 million feet of hole, trailed by Burlington Resources Canada with 788,000 feet, Devon Canada with 628,000 feet, Canadian Natural with 606,000 feet, Apache Canada with 545,000 feet and Husky with 487,000 feet.

—Gary Park