Market Content: Drilling in southeast Saskatchewan boosts production, reserves
It’s been over 70 years since the first major commercial oil discovery in southeast Saskatchewan, but operators continue extending drilling inventories and improving well productivity through new technologies, with open-hole multilateral well designs the latest innovation.
Approximately 490 oil wells were licensed in southeast Saskatchewan from the start of 2024 to the end of May 2025.
Whitecap Resources Ltd. has been the most active operator, licensing 139 wells from the beginning of 2024.
The Frobisher Beds has been the preferred target, accounting for 179 licences, with the Bakken in second place at 86 licences, during the same period.
But the licence count only tells part of the story. An increasing number of wells in southeast Saskatchewan are open-hole multilaterals (OHMLs). There have been 284 multilaterals licences drilled since the start of 2024, with 922 lateral legs.
Whitecap has been targeted the Frobisher Beds the last several years using OHMLs well designs, increasing the number of laterals drilled per well along with lateral lengths.
In 2024, Whitecap drilled 37 dual- and triple-leg Frobisher OHML wells, said Chris Bullin, vice-president, East Division, at its year-end earnings call.
The company launched an eight-leg OHML pilot that targeted a tighter flow unit within the upper Frobisher known as the State A, hoping to add inventory, Bullin said.
Through 150 days of production, its State A OHML pilot well achieved an average production rate of 191 boe/d (70 per cent liquids).
Whitecap is now evaluating follow up locations for 2025 to better assess the potential resource, with expectations it could add 100 wells to its inventory, he said.
Surge Energy Inc. has been active drilling OHML wells in the Frobisher as well.
Surge has successfully optimized reservoir contact by drilling two- and three-leg, vertically stacked multilateral wells targeting discrete pay zones within the Frobisher formation, the company said.
In 2024, it drilled 15 stacked multilateral wells, each consisting of two to three open-hole legs. It also drilled five single leg wells and three re-entries.
Surge has achieved industry leading results with average IP90 rates of 195 bbls/d for all Frobisher wells drilled in Saskatchewan the last three years, it said. This includes five of the top 10 Frobisher wells brought on production since the beginning of 2024.
Surge has budgeted to drill 35 gross (31.0 net) conventional Mississippian horizontal wells, with 23 net wells targeting the Frobisher formation, and eight net wells targeting the Midale and Lodgepole formations for 2025.
Seventeen wells, representing 74 per cent of planned Frobisher drills for the year, will be drilled as stacked multilateral horizontal wells.
Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. expanded its footprint in the Estevan field in June 2024 with its $600-million acquisition of Veren Inc.’s Battrum/Flat Lake assets.
The company is leveraging OHML wells in Mississippian and unconventional plays, potentially adding significant future inventories, said chief development officer Justin Kaufmann during its year-end earnings call.
In 2024 Saturn drilled the first ever Flat Lake open-hole Bakken well and its first OHML Spearfish well, applying expertise gained from its OHML Bakken development.
Saturn plans on spending $186 million in the region in 2025, drilling 34 conventional wells, including delineation wells on its Spearfish prospect. Eight Bakken OHML wells and one Spearfish OHML well are planned for 2025.
Saturn’s Mississippian Spearfish well inventory features approximately 600 locations, representing more than 20 per cent of its total corporate inventory and a significant number of its Tier 1 locations, Kaufmann said.
OHML drilling could play a significant role in developing that inventory if its pilot wells prove successful.
In Saturn’s open-hole multi-leg Bakken development, Kaufmann said the company drilled two eight-leg open-hole multilateral horizontal wells in the first quarter, including a two-mile multilateral the company expects could be a top oil well in Saskatchewan in the second quarter.
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