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Bakken steals Alberta's thunder
Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 16, 2008While the formation was discovered in North Dakota in 1953, and Canadian Hunter tried (unsuccessfully) to figure out how to exploit it in the early 1990s, the single biggest factor that has turned the Bakken into a viable resource is technology.
Unlike the Pembina formation, which has been developed using standard vertical wells, the Bakken play requires the use of horizontal wells.
These tend to cost about twice as much as a conventional well -- but at $100 US per barrel oil and very attractive royalty rates -- the numbers work quite nicely.
In the past 12 months, a Calgary-based company called Packers Plus has cracked the nut on how to get at these more challenging formations using horizontal drilling techniques.
More specifically, it used to be that the exploitation of these tight reservoirs -- whether gas or oil -- were dependent on where the natural fracturing in the reservoir occurred. Packers Plus has developed a technology that allows for companies to control where the fracturing takes place, avoid water and access multiple zones through the well bore.
"The technology has increased recovery rates by 50 per cent," said Tristone Capital's Chris Theal.
In a broader sense, the success of the Bakken formation illustrates the key role technology will continue to play as the energy sector around the world looks to unlock more fields that have been inaccessible because of the technical challenges.
Even better, it's more than a wee bit exciting that some of this is happening in Western Canada, a part of the world that had effectively been written off as not having any more big light oil pools to be found or developed.
dyedlin@theherald.canwest.com
