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The last land sale held in British Columbia was in May 2021. The land sales were first interrupted by COVID-19 in 2020 and then by the Blueberry River First Nations court decision in 2021.
In July 2024, the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation announced that sales will resume in December of this year and will be conducted monthly, as was the case before this long pause. For the first sale, the closing date to request to post lands was Aug. 13, the date the public notice will be published is Nov. 7, and the disposition date will be Dec. 4.
The gDC Cloud map above highlights where Montney open P&NG Crown rights are currently available to be posted (in green). As expected, most of the available Montney rights are on the outer boundaries of the Montney fairway, mainly due to depth on the west side and well-known pressure changes on the east side as the reservoir goes into the conventional pressure regime (presence of water). There are also open Montney rights throughout the Montney fairway due to surface restrictions, which are predominantly First Nations traditional land-related.
The 2024 Montney expiries are also plotted on the map (in yellow). However, once expanded, it can be seen that most of the expiry lands will be continued with the drilling of several wells on, or offsetting, the drilling licences and leases. With the land sale hiatus, the B.C. Ministry extended the expiries since companies could not get well licences approved during this same time period.
Since the last land sale in May 2021, there have been 1,649 wells spud in B.C. and 1,230 wells put on production.
Cumulative gas produced from the 1,230 wells to date is 2.5 tcf, all from the Montney formation (see gDC Cloud map above). Based on the significant amount of drilling that occurred since the last land sale and the large amount of gas and condensate produced from the Montney (see IP90 Liquid/Gas Ratio map below), it will not be surprising to see a significant amount of land posted in the next few land sales and throughout 2025. The Montney rights will more than likely be posted in phases in order for the B.C. Ministry to attract the highest prices possible.
The Top 10 operators that drilled the Montney wells during this land sale hiatus were: Tourmaline Oil Corp. (386), Petronas Canada (183), Ovintiv Inc. (171), ARC Resources Ltd. (126), Canadian Natural Resources Limited (84), Pacific Canbriam Energy (59), Shell Canada Ltd. (57), Murphy Oil Corporation (48), Crew Energy Inc. (33), and ConocoPhillips Canada (32).
The Top 10 gas wells were dominated by Ovintiv, with the Ovintiv 100/06-27-079-16W6 well leading the way at 32 mmcf/d (first three month calendar daily average gas rate), in the Sunrise area.
ConocoPhillips had six of the Top 10 condensate wells, with the ConocoPhillips 102/03-20-088-23 W6 well being the best of the best at 1,276 bbls/d (first three-month calendar daily average condensate rate), located in the Inga area.
There have been quite a few fairly significant learnings from the 1,649 Montney wells that have been drilled over the past three-plus years, especially the wells that have been drilled offsetting any of the open Montney Crown lands on the eastern boundary of the Montney fairway. At first glance, the areas that jump out are: Tourmaline’s activity in the Birley Creek and Laprise Creek areas, CNRL’s activity in the Nig Creek area, and ConocoPhillips success in the Inga area in the condensate window.
Bruce Hancock is Director, Technical Advisory Group, at geoLOGIC systems ltd. He has over 40 years’ experience in oil and gas exploration, development, and production.
