Record Level Of Development Metres Drilled To End Of April

A record amount of development metres has been rig released in Western and Northern Canada to the end of April, at 7.23 million metres, although exploratory meterage has declined from last year.

In April, 800,957 metres of development hole was drilled, the second highest tally on record (2001: 912,655 metres).

Through the first four months of 2013, industry has drilled 4,092 wells across the country, a 4.6 per cent increase from the same period in 2012, when 3,912 wells were rig released.

The highest four-month count occurred in 2006 when 8,061 wells were rig released.

The 4,092 wells translated into 8.40 million metres of hole this year, a 3.42 per cent jump from last year and the second-highest, four-month tally on record. In 2006, operators drilled 9.98 million metres over the first four months of the year.

Operators drilled only 377 wells in April for 912,214 metres of hole, as spring breakup limited drilling activity, while the spud count for new wells was 302.

Last month’s rig release count was up 9.3 per cent from 345 wells rig released a year ago, while the spud count is up 4.14 per cent from 290 wells.

The number of wells drilled in Alberta last month rose 9.18 per cent to 321 wells from 294 a year earlier. Through the first four months of the year, the count is up 5.75 per cent to 2,650 wells from 2,506 in January-April 2012, while 5.54 million metres have been drilled compared to 5.41 million metres in the first four months a year ago.

British Columbia’s 38 rig releases in April were up 72.73 per cent from 22 a year ago, while the four-month tally declined 3.77 per cent to 204 wells drilled compared to 212 in the first four months of 2012. Still, operators have drilled 749,252 metres in the province to the end of April versus 731,725 in the comparable 2012 period.

Saskatchewan operators only rig released 16 wells in April, a decrease of 44.83 per cent from 29 wells drilled a year ago. Through the first four months of the year, however, the province’s well count is up 1.61 per cent to 1,007 rig releases, and the metres rig released has climbed to 1.68 million from 1.61 million metres a year ago.

One well was rig released in Manitoba last month (compared to zero in the year-prior period), with the four-month count up 13.92 per cent to 221 wells versus 194 in the comparable period last year. Operators have drilled 411,879 metres to the end of April compared to 361,945 a year ago.

In Alberta, 1,834 of the wells drilled to the end of April were licensed to exploit oil or bitumen deposits (compared to 1,668 last year), while 433 were approved for natural gas or CBM targets (compared to 509 last year). In Saskatchewan, only one well was rig released with gas as its objective, while 963 were chasing oil.