Scott Saxberg has seen a lot of changes in the Saskatchewan oil patch since he first arrived to work in Saskatchewan in 1992.
And Saxberg - the president and CEO of Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy - believes the oil and gas sector has a bright future.
Saxberg was a speaker during a June 2 luncheon that was a part of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show. He reflected on when he first started working for Sask. Oil.
"There were about 39 (horizontal) wells at that time when I first moved out here and got started," said Saxberg. "Sask. Oil, at the time drilled their first horizontal well, and it came on at 600 barrels a day."
When Saxberg left Saskatchewan for Alberta, there were 1,000 horizontal wells. By the time 2005 rolled around, there were 6,000 wells; that number has since doubled to 12,000 wells.
Horizontal drilling, multi-stage fracing and other technological innovations - some of which are very recent - leave Saxberg excited about the future.
"When I look back at horizontal drilling, and how difficult it seemed at the time, and how technical it seemed at the time, and how expensive it was, it wasn't a certainty for the economics of how it would happen," said Saxberg.
Saskatchewan's oil industry also has a bright future due to the amount of oil available. The Bakken Play has five billion barrels; the Taylorton formation has 500 million to one billion barrels; Flat Lake has a billion barrels; the Lower Shaunavon has five billion barrels; the new Upper Shaunavon has a billion barrels. The new Spearfish and Torquay plays are also factors.
"When you add all that up, there are 12 or 13 billion barrels of oil that's newly been discovered in the last six years," said Saxberg. "It's pretty incredible. It's a huge amount of oil. We think we're going to recover two-and-a-half to four billion barrels of oil. That's pretty impressive at $100 per barrel oil."
He noted that Crescent Point, which is in its 10th year of operations, has raised $2.85 billion of equity since its inception. They have completed 140 transactions. Most have been in Saskatchewan. A few were in Alberta.
The Oil and Gas Show was a busy time for Saxberg. Not only did he speak on June 2, he was presented with the Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year Award a day earlier.
