An extensive review has bolstered Calima Energy’s confidence that its upcoming horizontal wells at the Montney Project in British Columbia, Canada, will be able to match the best wells in the region.
Canadian oil and gas services company, Canadian Discovery, recently completed a review of more than 500 multi-stage drilling completions in the Montney Formation that lie within a 75km radius of Calima’s first drilling location.
The review found that the length of horizontal well sections, number of stages and the proppant loading in Montney wells have been increasing year on year, leading to improved well performances.
Wells drilled in 2017 had a peak average daily gas production of just over 5.5 million cubic feet per day, up from the 5 million cubic feet per day achieved by wells drilled in 2016.
Calima is planning to kick off its drilling campaign in December this year with one vertical well to provide stratigraphic calibration and core samples for measurement and analysis.
It will then drill two horizontal wells that will be fracture stimulated and put on an extended production test over a period of 4-6 weeks.
The company is proposing to drill 2,500 m horizontal sections with 85-90 stimulation stages uses between 1.2 tonne and 1.5 tonnes of proppant loading per metre.
Calima Managing Director and experienced oil and gas man Alan Stein said: “The extensive review conducted by Canadian Discovery gives us confidence that our drilling plans are aligned with the best practice of other successful operators in northern British Columbia.”
Earlier this week, Calima completed the acquisition of joint venture partners, TSV Montney and TMK Montney, giving it 100% control of drilling rights over 72,104 acres of potentially liquids-rich Montney Formation shales.
The high ratio of liquids is especially valuable thanks to the rising demand for condensate, which is required as a thinner for the transportation of heavy oil produced from Canadian oil sands.
This level of prospectivity has drawn considerable interest in the Montney Formation including Calgary-based NuVista Energy’s move to acquire Cenovus Energy’s assets in the Montney that produce 9600 barrels of oil per day equivalent for CAD$625m.
