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
Energy companies continued to pour money into British Columbia on Thursday
6/19, adding another $213 million to its land sale coffers to snap up rights in the Horn River shale play.
The
result comes on the heels of a record $441 million raised in the province's May land sale, bringing the B.C.'s fiscal
year-to-date total to $693.9 million, well on track for another banner year.
The most expensive parcel at
the sale went for $36.7 million, or $23,500 a hectare, where a pair of Texas-based outfits -- EOG Resources and Quicksilver
Resources -- have been active in recent months.
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 - Calgary-based EnCana discovered Horn River Shale play back in 2003, ECA
is the Shale Leader here. Encana has 220,000 net acres in the heart of
the Horn River Shale play. In 2007 EnCana formed a 50/50 joint venture
on a portion of the play with Apache Corporation. In the
Horn River basin, In Horn River in British
Columbia, EnCana and partner Apache Corporation have completed seven wells this year, with one of our most recent wells delivering encouraging results, flowing for the first 30 days at
an average of almost 8 MMcf/d."
2009 Update: In the HornRiver in northeast British Columbia, EnCana and its partner Apache have adopted a
more efficient approach to the development of the play.
We now plan to drill 24 gross wells in 2009 rather than 40 initially
scheduled. The number of well fractures along these long rich horizontal wells will be increased to about 14 from the original
planned eight. The change in designings we can complete more intervals along each well leg, number of wells required to develop
the resource and minimizing our environmental footprint.
- Apache APA - Apache and Encana take lead in the new and hottest shale play( Horn River Basin Shale ) so far this year. Great
picture and details of operations on this link!
- ExxonMobile XOM - Exxon Mobil has acquired 152,000 net acres since 2007 in the Horn River Basin in northeast British Columbia. Exploration
drilling activity to evaluate the Horn River shale gas play began in late 2008, the company said in its annual report. 2009 Update: In the HornRiver Basin in Northeastern British Columbia Canada, and in the lower Saxony basin
in Germany, we continue the initial phase of our drilling and evaluation program on our Shale gas acreage
- 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. Horn
River Shale Gas-Horizontal Well Testing Underway
During the quarter, we completed and tied-in two wells drilled
last summer. We have commenced testing on these wells. We also drilled three wells earlier this year and plan to complete
and tie-in these wells before year end. We expect to have six wells on production as the year unfolds.
This shale
gas play has the potential to become one of the most significant shale gas plays in North America. It has been compared to
the Barnett Shale in Texas by other operators in the area as it displays similar rock properties and play characteristics.
We have approximately 88,000 acres in the Dilly Creek area of the Horn River basin with a 100% working interest. As previously
announced, we estimate these lands contain between 3 and 6 trillion cubic feet (0.5 to 1.0 billion barrels of oil equivalent)
of recoverable contingent resource which could double our total proved reserves. Further appraisal activity is required before
these estimates can be finalized and commerciality established.
"We continue to be encouraged by the results
of our shale gas drilling program," said Romanow. "It demonstrates that we can produce the considerable resource
potential contained in our lands. When gas prices recover, we will ramp up the pace of development and focus on reducing well
costs."
- 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.
