Canadian gas hunt to target small pools

Nov. 16, 1998
Future natural gas exploration in Canada will involve numerous small-pool discoveries and new strategies for companies, says the Canadian Gas Potential Committee (CGPC). CGPC spokesman Richard Proctor says that Canadian operators will have to drill substantially more wells every year to meet increasing demand for Canadian gas in the expanding North American market. CGPC is an independent committee of geologists and engineers affiliated with the University of Calgary.

Future natural gas exploration in Canada will involve numerous small-pool discoveries and new strategies for companies, says the Canadian Gas Potential Committee (CGPC).

CGPC spokesman Richard Proctor says that Canadian operators will have to drill substantially more wells every year to meet increasing demand for Canadian gas in the expanding North American market.

CGPC is an independent committee of geologists and engineers affiliated with the University of Calgary.

What's needed

CGPC said that the number of gas wells drilled in Western Canada each year should increase to 5,000 pools from a current 1,000 to offset declines in production and meet demand.

It estimated that average size of a new pool has declined to about 1 bcf from 4 bcf in the 1970s.

The committee said that the Sverdrup and Beaufort basins in the Arctic and the Hibernia area and Sable subbasin off Canada's East Coast are prospective areas for further gas discoveries.

It estimated that about 60% of recently added reserves in Western Canada are now attributed to about 200,000 smaller pools.

CGPC said in a 1997 report that there are 62 tcf of remaining reserves and an undiscovered conventional marketable gas potential of 122 tcf in Western Canada. That estimate did not include frontier areas or unconventional gas resources from sources such as coalbed methane.

CAPP view

David Manning, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said that market economics will dictate the level of drilling activity in Canada.

He said the key to higher gas prices for Western Canada is expanding pipeline capacity to U.S. markets.

Manning contends that future exploratory drilling activity in Canada will likely be centered on shallow gas drilling, and he notes that new technology has made smaller pools economically viable. He said major companies will continue to focus on large gas discoveries.

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