Celebrating Canadian E&P accomplishments in the last year: Drilling Top Tens for 2018

February 26, 2019

Canada’s energy industry is not only the most carefully managed, regulated, and environmentally responsible in the world, it’s also one of the most innovative. Canadian E&P companies are continually at the forefront of developing new, more efficient, cost-effective, and low-impact techniques and technology for resource exploration and exploitation. Even though drilling activity in the WCSB is down, that isn’t stopping companies from pushing the technical limits and achieving commendable results.

We occupy a unique position at XI because we house and analyze an enormous drilling database. Our Drilling Services team is usually busy tending to this beast, continually updating the data, developing the analytics built around it so that you can pull from it more intelligent data, and incorporate it easily into your workflows. Twice a year though, we step back to look at the big picture and compile a series of Top Ten lists that showcase the successes of our drilling industry. We believe this is an important reminder that there is a lot of good work being done in the WCSB, and we want to give credit to our Canadian E&P operators.

In our October 16^th Blog, we pooled the data from the first half of 2018. Now that the remainder of last year’s data is in, we’ve done some analysis to show how the major players did in 2018 as a whole. If you’d like to compare this with our analysis of 2017, you can find that in our blog from last March.

Top operators for “productive” drilling

More important than the number of wells drilled is how much production you achieve with those wells. Crescent Point and CNRL continue to hold the top two spots on this chart. Arrows indicate other companies who were on the list for the first half of 2018, and whether they moved up or down in the rankings. Baytex and Karve are especially impressive because they weren’t even in the top ten for the first half of the year.

Top operators for new well production

Achieving a high initial production rate can have a significant impact on the overall ROI for a well or drilling program.

In the graphic below we’ve looked at IP 90 rates for new gas wells and oil wells drilled in 2018. The stars indicate that Bellatrix, Painted Pony, and Tidewater Midstream are the three companies who appeared on this list for the first half of the year and stayed in the top ten to the end of the year as well.

Which operators achieved the best rates from their best oil wells drilled during the same time frame? Stars indicate operators who made our 2017 list. Hammerhead was 8^th on our 2017 ranking, and finished 2018 in 9^th spot. Cenovus and Murphy went from 5^th and 6^th to 6^th and 4^th respectively.

Top 10 new producing gas wells

Based on the data, Peyto drilled the most successful gas well in 2018, while Tourmaline who had the highest producing gas well in 2017, has three top performing wells in 2018’s top ten.

Wondering where these wells are? Contact us and we’ll show you.

Top 10 new producing oil wells

When it comes to initial production rates for oil wells drilled in 2018, Cenovus and Seven Generations dominated the top ten just as they did last year, and ConocoPhilips makes a cameo appearance with one well in the top ten.

Wondering where these wells are? Contact us and we’ll show you.

Top 10 operators for new gas production

Which operators achieved the greatest gas production (in mmcf) from wells drilled in the WCSB in 2018? Encana took the first spot from Tourmaline who had it for the first half of 2018, and Tourmaline moved to number two, while the other companies who stayed on the list until the end of the year are Seven Generations, Bellatrix, Birchcliff, Vermilion, Bonavista, and Peyto.

Top 10 operators for new oil production

Which operators added the highest cumulative total oil production (in mbbl) from wells drilled in the WCSB in 2018? Seven Generations replaced Crescent Point which was at the top of the list for the first half of last year. Baytex, Encana, and Teine are the other operators who held onto spots in the top ten all the way through 2018.

Congratulations to all our WCSB operators and producers. The last few years have been challenging and difficult for all of us, but the Canadian energy industry continues to exhibit a commitment to innovative, responsible production that rivals that of any producing nation. We will prevail!