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The Spud Activity Dashboard below is filtered to highlight activity from Jan. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2024. There were 104 formations targeted during this period (yielding 7,802 wells/well-legs), but we manually selected the Top 15 (which reduced the dataset to 6,312 wells/well-legs).
The top formations highlight the diverse assets being targeted in the WCSB, with the Clearwater leading the list (spread between the conventional heavy oil play dominated by mostly multilateral completions and thermal oilsands operations).
- Multilateral completions have moved beyond the Clearwater and have helped raise a few new formations to the top of the list, including General Petroleum, Spirit River and Falher.
- Operators continue to actively spud thermal and heavy oil wells, with the top of the list including the McMurray, Waseca, Frobisher beds, Midale beds, Rex and Sparky.
- Shale gas wells in the Montney (768) and Duvernay (145) continue to expand and infill with large-scale completions.
- Shallower Viking projects along the Alberta/Saskatchewan border are being drilled steadily, while Deep Basin completions continue to be revisited across the WCSB (Cardium, Falher, Bluesky, etc).
- Rounding out the Top 15 formations drilled are the Midale beds in southeast Saskatchewan with 109 wells spudded.
The Top 3 operators that drilled in these formations are: Cenovus Energy (predominantly thermal McMurray wells, Waseca, Sparky and Rex), Canadian Natural’s Montney shale and thermal activity (Sparky, Waseca and McMurray) and Headwater Exploration’s drilling of Clearwater multilaterals.
Spud counts peaked in February and July; however, extended pad drilling in the Montney and on multilateral well pads kept activity moving over spring breakup, with 472 drilling starts in April (the month with the lowest tally).
As companies continue to develop and grow their key assets, the top formations are not a big surprise. However, there are plays that are expanding to new areas. Examples include the Clearwater, which is moving north of Dawson to Cadotte (Obsidian and Baytex), and the Duvernay, which has a new exploration well drilled south of the Sturgeon Lake Reef (Logan Energy).
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.
