By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 19 -- Canadian natural gas reserves climbed during 2001, according to annual estimates released last week by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).
"Last year, the focus of the conventional sector was towards natural gas, and that is reflected by new additions of gas reserves," said John Dielwart, chairman of CAPP's board of governors, adding, "New reserves added 106% of gas production. This is an increase over last year's 79% replacement rate."
Meanwhile, Canadian reserves of crude oil and equivalent—including oil sands—declined by 366 million bbl to 11.9 billion bbl, CAPP reported. "This is indicative of the oil/gas drilling ratio in 2001," CAPP said, adding that oil accounted for 27% of all the successful wells drilled in Canada last year.
"Last year, we invested close to $28 billion in Canada—in the conventional areas of the Western (Canada) Sedimentary Basin, northern Canada, in the oil sands, and on the East Coast—making the oil and natural gas industry the largest private sector investor in Canada," Dielwart said.
In the WCSB, natural gas reserves rose by 1% from yearend 2000 to 57.5 tcf, CAPP reported. "Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan all replaced (gas) production, with Saskatchewan leading the group with a 196% replacement rate," CAPP said.
Canadian reserves of conventional oil decreased "moderately" to 4.7 billion bbl in 2001. These reserves replaced 60% of production, CAPP reported. "Atlantic Canada offshore reserves of 950 million bbl at the Hibernia and Terra Nova projects decreased by 54 million bbl due to production at the Hibernia project," CAPP reported. CAPP noted that Terra Nova, however, did not begin production until 2002.
