"Other Shale/Tight Oil Plays Still In Their Infancy"

Artikkeli:

While there's growing industry interest around some emerging shale/tight oil plays in Alberta, companies involved in the early-phase exploration of them have offered little in the way of publicly-available information and data to date.

Aside from the Alberta Bakken/Exshaw, the Devonian Muskwa/Duvernay shales in northwest Alberta's Deep Basin, the Jurassic Nordegg shales in the Peace River area of Alberta and the Cretaceous Second White Specks in the Deep Basin are also in play.

"Given virtually no long-term horizontal production history and very early geochemical, petrophysical, and mineralogical data, we believe it is too early to comment on which shale oil play will end up at the top of the heap," said Macquarie Equities Research analyst Ray Kwanin a recent report.

"...while thefirst Muskwa horizontal by CCRL produced at a peak rate of 100 bbls per day on a calendar daybasis. So far, there have been no horizontals drilled in the oil window of the Duvernay," he said.

Shale development in the Rainbow area had been relatively non-existent until late September 2009 when CCRL drilled a horizontal well at 02-30-109-08W6 targeting "what we believe is Muskwa shale oil," Kwan said.

"While still on confidential status, the well was producing on a calendar day basis at a peak rate of approximately 100 bbls per day (37-38°API). On top of this, a producer(s), under the guise of several land brokers, managed to purchase over 250 net sections through Crown land sales since 2010," he added.

"In our view, the leading contender is EOG Resources, which recently came out of hiding by licensing a horizontal Muskwa well this summer (T107-R09W6). EOG is arguably the most knowledgeable and astute producer in identifying shale oil plays in North America."