Estevan 鈥� Bang! Sixty rigs kicked off right at the start of the year.
With oil over US$60 WTI in the first week of the New Year, drilling in Saskatchewan took off. It takes a few days to get most rigs moving, but right off the hop, they鈥檝e been firing up. By Jan. 4, sister publication Rig Locator (riglocator.ca) listed 60 rigs working in the Land of Living Skies. That鈥檚 the highest level since the first week of March 2017.
The highest number of active drilling rigs in Saskatchewan over the past three years was March 1, 2017, with 76 rigs for a brief period. The first 75 days of the year are traditionally Saskatchewan鈥檚 busiest when it comes to drilling, even moreso ever since the flood year of 2011, when wetter surface conditions hampered summer drilling for several years afterwards.
With 60 rigs working in the first week, that鈥檚 higher than any opening week since the downturn hit in late 2014.
The biggest impact, by far, has been Crescent Point Energy Corp.鈥檚 return to the top of the leader board for all oil companies in Canada with reference to the number of active drilling rigs. With 26 rigs on Jan. 4, it doubled the No. 2 operator, Encana Corp, which had 13. Indeed, Crescent Point had more than the No. 2 and No. 3 operators combined, as Cenovus Energy, in third spot fielded 12 rigs.
It鈥檚 been a tumultuous few months for those drilling for Crescent Point, as the company drew down most of its drilling program in November for several weeks. It put a number back to work in mid-December, getting a hole or two done with each just Christmas.
Now, of those 26 rigs in Canada, 25 were working for Crescent Point in Saskatchewan. Rig Locator鈥檚 map showed a bit of a change in strategy, as the company had four rigs working in the Viewfield Bakken area in something of a halo pattern, all about 11 to 15 kilometres from Stoughton. But it鈥檚 in the Torquay area that their emphasis has been revealed. It what is likely the highest concentration of rigs in that region since it took off a few years ago, the company had nine drilling rigs working in an area southwest of Torquay, from Highway 350 to 13 kilometres west, and from the U.S. border to 10 kilometres north.
Crescent Point had indicated a $100 million addition to its capital program to, in part, target the Lodgepole formation in this general region.
Rigs have started to pop up west of Oungre, with Spartan Energy having one rig west of the community, and Torc Oil & Gas with its own, southwest of Oungre.
Two rigs were working along the north side of the Rafferty Reservoir, both for Crescent Point. That company also had a rig at Roche Percee.
Other singular rigs in the southeast included Ridgeback Resources, with one rig at Heward. Midale Petroleums had one east of Benson. Torc had one rig northeast of Lampman, in the Steelman field.
All by its lonesome without any other rigs near it in southeast Saskatchewan, Tundra Oil & Gas had one rig working south of Carievale, at Antler.
In Southwest Saskatchewan, there were nearly double as many active rigs as has been the usual pattern. That鈥檚 in part due to Crescent Point adding additional rigs, bringing their count up to six near Shaunavon and one north of Gull Lake. In that area, Surge Energy had one rig south of Shaunavon and Whitecap Resources had two north of Gull Lake.
In the Kindersley area, a line of 10 rigs ran east-west, from Dodsland to Whiteside. Five of those rigs were working for Teine Energy. Whitecap had two, Raging River Exploration, Crescent Point, and NAL Resources had one each in that string.
Raging River also had a rig at Elrose and another at Plato. Crescent Point had one between those two, at Plato.
Another cluster could be found southwest of Kerrobert. There, Raging River had two rigs, while Baytex Energy, Ish Energy, and Whitecap each had one.
Sitting off to itself in an area that doesn鈥檛 see much drilling at all in recent years, Caltex Resources had one rig working at Druid, just northwest of Kelfield.
Much of northwest Saskatchewan had scattered, lone rigs. Listed as Northern Blizzard (now known as Cona Resources was one rig working at Cactus lake. Under its own name, Cona had one rig at Winter. Altura Energy had a singular rig within sight of the Alberta border, just north of Macklin.
Southwest of Maidstone, Baytex Energy had one rig at Soda Lake.
North of Highway 16, only Husky Energy had rigs working 鈥� three of them. One was at Bolney, another at Tangleflags, and the third at Big Gully.
