Horn River Basin Shale Play - Horn River Shale Natural Gas Field Information
Horn River Shale Basin Location: Northeast
British Columbia, Canada - South Northwest Territories - East of Liard river - Muncho Lake - Fireside - Summit Lake -
City of Ware - Toad River - Muncho Lake Provincial Park
Horn River Shale Drilling Area: The
major drilling area at Horn River Shale Formation is just northwest of Kotcho Lake and Southeast of Maxhamish Lake B.C Canada.
Major cities in the region are: Nelson Forks, Snake River, Fort Nelson, Muskwa.
What is the Horn River Shale Basin Formation?
The Horn River Shale Formation ( British Columbia, Canada Shale
) is a natural gas shale field located deep below the earths surface. Located mainly in British Columbia B.C,
Canada, the Horn River Basin shale play is the largest shale gas field in Canada according to B.C. Energy Minister Richard
Neufeld. In 2007, companies spent a total of 240 million in new leases for the Horn River Basin Rock Deposit Area.
Another emerging shale play in British Columbia just south of the Horn River formation is the Montney Shale.
Horn River Basin Shale Map - Drilling
Though this field
has been around for a long time, the Horn River Shale is a relatively new discovery as far as natural gas goes. The
Shale boom going on in the United States and Canada is mainly due to higher natural gas prices and new
drilling technologies called Horizontal Drilling as well as Hydraulic Fracturing. In short, after a well is drilled vertically, it is then drilled horizontally. Companies then use new hydraulic
fracturing techniques. These companies use millions of gallons of water and sand at a high
pressure to fracture the shale which then releases the gas. It is then pumped out and run through gas pipelines.
Some experts say that if you would have mentioned extracting natural gas from shale 5-10 years ago, you would have
been laughed at! But now, given the recent boom in shale exploration and new technology, this laughing has turned into
serious business for many large companies.
Experts estimate that there is about 250 trillion cubic feet of
Natural Gas in northeast B.C in which 10-20% would be recoverable. The Horn River Shale is fairly new, even
newer then the Haynesville Shale in Northwest Louisiana. While remaining somewhat quiet about their operation in the Horn River Shale, many
companies are putting up large amounts of money for land leases. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure
out that this Shale Play will produce a huge supply of Natural Gas in the coming years. Follow the Money!! Don't forget to check out these other shale plays just as hot as Horn River Shale. Haynesville Shale -Marcellus Shale - Bakken Oil Shale - Fayetteville Shale - Brazil Oil Field - Woodford Shale - Barnett Shale - Chattanooga Shale - Utica Shale
ExxonMobile ( XOM ) and Imperial Oil ( IMO ) have reportedly beefed
up their stake in the Horn River Shale by winning the bid on 8 new blocks of land in a British Columbia land sale. Exxon
now ranks with the big boys by owning around 250,000 acres.
February 26, 2009 - TransCanada ( TRP ) secures shipper commitments for Horn River Pipeline project. TransCanada Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada) today announced the successful
completion of a binding open season, securing support for firm transportation contracts of 378 million cubic feet per day
to connect new shale gas supply in the Horn River basin north of Fort Nelson B.C. to the Alberta System.
The Horn River
pipeline project is approximately 155 kilometres (km) and is expected to use new pipelines up to 36-inch diameter and an existing
pipeline in the area to transport sweet natural gas from the Horn River area to a tie in point on TransCanada’s existing
Alberta System. The pipeline is expected to be operational early in the second quarter of 2011, subject to regulatory
approvals. The proposed project is expected to cost approximately $340 million.
Companies Involved in Drilling the
Horn River Shale - Horn River Shale Stocks
-Encana ECA - At Horn River, the joint drilling program by EnCana and Apache Corporation at Two Island
Lake continues to meet or exceed expectations for both initial well production and expected size of the resource. As a result
of the joint venture’s combined activities, to date 32 gross wells have been drilled to evaluate the basin and 10 gross
horizontal wells placed on production. Similar to activity at the Haynesville, fracture stimulations at Horn River have increased
to up to 14 stages per horizontal section. The first wells completed in 2009 were placed on production towards the end of
the quarter. The wells have shown strong results with flow rates of 9.5 MMcf/d to 11 MMcf/d after 15 days of initial flow.
EnCana also commissioned a new compression and dehydration facility as well as a gas gathering pipeline that connects the
Two Island Lake area with the Spectra pipeline system near the proposed EnCana operated Cabin gas plant.
- Apache APA - Apache and Encana take lead in the new and hottest shale play( Horn River Basin Shale ) so far this year. APA
has 425,000 acres of leasehold. Great picture and details of operations on this link!
November 2009 Update: Production at Apache's Ootla development in the Horn River Basin shale play in northeast British Columbia is projected
to ramp up during the second quarter. Apache and its joint venture partner EnCana plan to have 27 horizontal wells (gross)
on production by the end of the first half.
- Exxon Mobile XOM - We made significant progress during the quarter on our unconventional gas exploration opportunities around the world. In
June, we acquired an additional eight blocks, totaling 110,000 acres in the HornRiver Basin, located in
Northeastern British Columbia, Canada. This acquisition brings our total net acreage in this promising shale gas play to 305,000
acres. Building upon the successful results of our 2008-2009 programs we're actively planning the next stage of our drilling
and evaluation program that will commence later this year.
Novermber 2009 Update - We continued evaluation work on our extensive acreage position in the HornRiver Basin in Canada. Following
our successful drilling campaign last winter, we have begun a second comprehensive multi-well program, beginning with our
first horizontal well in the play.
- Quicksilver Resources KWK - Ouicksilver KWK has a nice acreage position in the Horn River Basin Shale.
May 2008 - On the exploration front in Canada, the company recently announced that 127,000
contiguous acre lease block in the Horn River
Basin in the northeast British Columbia. Our Canadian team did an excellent job of identifying a huge opportunity, and it
appears from nearby production test completed in the thick Devonian shale formations that we are well positioned to attack
another large resource play. Quicksilver will drill as many as four wells in this winter's drilling season. We're getting
in December to begin testing on the lease block. This is a long-term project with lots of hurdles to clear but the potential
is tremendous and we have favorable leases with long lease term to execute our plan.
2009 Update: Quicksilver finished exploratory drilling activities on two horizontal wells as well as road and pipeline construction
in the Horn River Basin of northeast British Columbia. The company expects to conduct completion activities on these wells
following the spring break-up period.
- Devon Energy DVN - Devon DVN has taken a nice drilling stake in the Horn River Shale Natural Gas Field - Also in Canada
in the second quarter, Devon increased its lease position in the Horn River Shale play in British Columbia to more than 100,000
net acres. The company is now planning its upcoming winter drilling program for the Horn River area.
- EOG Resources EOG - ( From Seeking Alpha ) In the British Columbia HornRiver Basin, we intend to continue a steady
program and drill seven horizontal wells compared to six last year. We now have six months of sustained production from several
of our wells and are encouraged that this program will likely be competitive with other North American shale plays.
We're
also encouraged that the BC government is considering royalty incentives to help offset the challenge of the remote location
and associated costs and make the play more competitive with other North American gas plays. We have 157,500 net acres in
the play and it's worthwhile noting that EOG's current activity is on the west side of the play there is access to a separate
gas pipeline infrastructure with current adequate capacity for a near-term forecasted volume growth. The pipeline will be
expanded in the future to meet increases in drilling activity.
We currently believe that takeaway infrastructure for
the overall field won't happen until early 2012. But given our current access to takeaway capacity we expect to be able to
slowly ramp up production each year so our HornRiver production growth profile will be steady
year-by-year rather than a hockey stick slope.
- Nexen NXY - Nexen NXY is very active in the Horn River Shale Basin Play. Following the conclusion of our recent three-well drilling and completion program,
we continue to make significant progress on our substantial Horn River shale gas position in north-east British Columbia.
With five shale gas wells now on-stream, we are producing approximately 15 mmcf/d with the majority of production coming from
the three new wells. These wells have a higher frac density than our earlier wells. Our land position here could support 500
to 700 wells.
Substantial cost savings and productivity improvements were realized with this drilling and completion
program. We took advantage of improved equipment utilization, drilled longer wells, initiated more fracs per well and maintained
an industry-leading frac pace of 26 fracs in 15 days while achieving a 100% success rate on our frac program. Two of the wells
were completed with eight fracs, while the third well was completed with ten fracs.
"We are making excellent
progress in bringing down our Horn River breakevens by decreasing costs and increasing well productivity, and there is more
upside to come," said Romanow. "We are in the process of developing an eight-well pad drilling program for this
winter. These wells will be longer than our current wells with eighteen fracs per well. The following winter we plan to drill
an eighteen-well pad which we expect will drive our breakevens down further."
We have approximately 88,000
acres in the Dilly Creek area of the Horn River basin with a 100% working interest. We estimate our lands contain between
3 and 6 trillion cubic feet (0.5 to 1.0 billion barrels of oil equivalent) of contingent recoverable resource which could
double our existing companywide total proved reserves. Further appraisal activity is required before these estimates can be
finalized and commerciality established.
Imperial Oil IMO - Imperial Oil and Exxon Mobile both have acreage together in the Horn River Basin Shale - In recent land sales, subsidiaries
of Imperial Oil Limited (operator) and ExxonMobil Canada Limited have acquired exploration rights in the Horn River area of
northeastern British Columbia. Since September 2007, the companies have acquired total license holdings of about 115,000
acres. The licenses are located 70 kilometres northeast of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Imperial Oil Limited and ExxonMobil
Canada Limited each hold a 50 percent interest in the acreage.
- Park Place Energy PRPL - Park Place is looking to get into the Horn
River Basin Play - Park Place is also actively seeking to acquire a blue-sky opportunity and has focused on shale gas
properties in the Horn River Basin and area, which is within the Company's
defined core area for development in North East British Columbia. The Horn River Basin
has been described as significantly larger than the Barnett shale area in Texas which was first drilled in 1981 and currently produces 3 billion cubic feet per day. Wood Mackenzie stated in a
recent report that they predict the Horn River Basin area could hold 50 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas making it the hottest resource play in North America.
.
Nabors Industries NBR - Nabors NBR builds and supplies drilling rigs to companies in the Horn River Shale. We
have several rigs committed to these areas, including a heli-portable rig that's
going to go in the Horn River and the big advantage of that is number one, it's our acreage so we can show how we can drill
but also, it's going to be on a pad.
