Every year for the past three years around mid-August Saskatchewan’s active drilling rig numbers hit the mid- to high-30s in count, according to Rig Locator (riglocator.ca). In 2016, they climbed after that point, in 2015, they dropped. This year, so far, they’ve stayed flat. As of Sept. 6, Rig Locator showed 38 rigs working in Saskatchewan, a number that’s stayed relatively consistent plus or minus three rigs since Aug. 16.
A drop in Crescent Point Energy Corp. rigs down to nine, from 13, has had the most noticeably impact. This number is in line with what Crescent Point president and CEO Scott Saxberg told Pipeline News on Aug. 25 when asked if 13 active rigs was the new normal for the company. He replied, “No, I think we had 27 in Q1. It’s just really how our capital is broken out through the quarters, so we’re going to have a more consistent Q3, Q4 program, and then ramp it up into Q1 a little bit more. It’s more of a normal sort of spread, with a little more capital spread into the U.S.”
“I think we’ll be in this range consistently through the end of the year, then a ramp up into Q1, plus or minus three or four rigs,” he noted.
On Sept. 6, Crescent Point had three rigs working in its Flat Lake play, near Oungre and Torquay. That included Trinidad Drilling Ltd. Rig 423, Horizon Drilling Rig 33, and Alliance Drilling and Oilfield Service Ltd. Rig 3.
Also drilling in that area for Spartan Energy Corp. was Horizon Drilling Rig 29.
Over in the Stoughton area, home of the Viewfield Bakken play, things were unusually quiet. Only one rig was working near Stoughton, Precision Drilling Rig 195, for Crescent Point.
Between Stoughton and Lampman, Betts Drilling Ltd. Rig 2 was working for Highrock Resources Ltd at Minard. West of there, at Bryant, Red Dog Drilling Rig 4 was drilling for Crescent Point.
Close to the Souris River in the Pinto area, Stampede Drilling Ltd. Rig 2 was making hole for Astra Oil Corp. Further downstream, south of Alameda, Panther Drilling Rig 4 was working near the river, south of Alameda.
D2 Drilling Inc. Rig 1 could be found in the Cantal area, west of Alida, working for Villanova 4 Oil Corp. Northeast of there, Panther Rig 2 was drilling for NAL Resources Ltd. Spartan’s third rig, Tempco Drillinc Company Inc., was also working north of Alida.
Also showing up on the rig report, as usual, Ensign Drilling Rig 689 was working for Mosaic Potash Esterhazy Limited Partnership, near the Esterhazy mines.
The busiest part of the province, as is usual, was the Kindersley region. Crescent Point had Savanna Rig 420 at Plato and Rig 436 at Dodsland. Ish Energy Ltd. had Horizon Rig 61 at Prairiedale. NAL had Precision Drilling Rig 188 at Elrose.
Raging River Exploration and Teine Energy Ltd. each had three rigs going. Raging River’s rigs included Tempco Rig 6 at Whiteside, Savanna Rig 439 at Plato and Rig 441 at Beadle. Teine had Bonanza Drilling Rig 1 at Milton, Ensign Rig 356 at Avon Hill and Rig 358 at Dodsland.
Tempco Rig 5 was hired on with Tamarack Acquisition Corp. at Hoosier. Whitecap Resources Inc. had Bonanza Rig 2 and Ensign Rig 352 at Kerrobert.
