Estevan– In the space of a month, Saskatchewan’s already bad active drilling numbers fell by about half. However, there was a substantial turnaround on Sept. 23, just before this edition went to press. That turnaround was almost entirely due to Crescent Point Energy Corp.
Saskatchewan’s rig count had fallen to just 19 active rigs as of Sept. 8, according to sister publication Rig Locator. (www.riglocator.ca.). Three of those rigs, Ensign Rig 644 & 689; Stampede Rig 1, were drilling for potash, leaving just 16 drilling for oil. That number may have even been lower, as the map function may not have caught up to the overall rig count number for Saskatchewan, which is showing 17 active rigs.
In southeast Saskatchewan, the number of rigs drilling for oil had dropped to just eight, as Crescent Point’s drilling activity had slowed down tremendously. In southwest Saskatchewan, where Crescent Point is the dominant operator, there were no rigs working at all.
Seven rigs were active in the Kindersley area. Just one rig remained active in the Lloydminster area.
All 13 former CanElson rigs (now part of Trinidad Drilling as of Aug. 11), were reported as down, according to Trinidad Drilling. Similarly, all Advance, Akita, Alliance, Crusader, Lasso, Nabors, Quinn, Quintera, Red Dog, Tempco, Vortex and Xtreme drilling rigs reported in Saskatchewan were also listed as down, according to Rig Locator.
On Aug. 11, 2015 Saskatchewan had 37 drilling rigs working, including two for potash. On Sept. 6, 2014, there were 80 rigs working in Saskatchewan. On the same date in 2013 it was 69.
By Sept. 21, 2015 the numbers were not looking any better. Saskatchewan was reporting just 17 active drilling rigs, of which three were working for potash. Seven were in southeast Saskatchewan, six in the Kindersley area and just one in the Lloydminster area, near Edam.
The companies still drilling were, in the southeast: Spartan Energy Corp (2 rigs); Astra Oil Corp. (1 rig); Steppe Petroleum Inc. (1 rig); Caprice Resources Ltd. (1 rig); Cenovus Energy Inc. (1 rig) and Crescent Point Energy Corp. (1 rig).
There were no rigs working in the southwest, and hadn’t been any drilling for several weeks.
In the Kindersley area, active operators included Raging River Exploration Inc. (2 rigs), Teine Energy Ltd. (2 rigs), Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (1 rig) and Caltex Resources Ltd. (1 rig).
Husky Oil Operations Ltd., had the sole rig working in the Lloydminster region, near Edam.
All told, Saskatchewan’s two largest operators, which have been among the top drillers in the country for years, have each reduced their activity to one rig each. Those were Husky and Crescent Point. Combined, the two operators account for nearly half of Saskatchewan’s total oil production.Â
Drilling picks up
Things changed substantially for the better on Sept. 23, when Rig Locator showed the number of active drilling rigs had jumped to 27, up 10 from a few days before. Crescent Point’s rig numbers shot up from one to nine, bringing back many of the rigs that had been working for them throughout the summer.Â
(Ed. note: As of Sept 30, the rig count stood at 36, according to Rig Locator)
The rigs working for Crescent Point included Trinidad (3 rigs, all former CanElson rigs), Alliance (2 rigs), Stampede (2 rigs), Vortex (1 rig) and Precision (1 rig). All were in the southeast.
