Alberta’s Duvernay resource play is already taking its place alongside the Montney as a key driver of Alberta’s energy economy — and it continues to attract operators capable of improving drilling and completions strategies while simultaneously strengthening their balance sheets.
Indeed, careful study of Duvernay activity reveals a play that’s rapidly gaining momentum.
That’s the view of Bruce Hancock, P. Geol, recently appointed as director of the Technical Advisory Group at geoLOGIC systems ltd., a Calgary-based information services company driven by a mission to provide premium-quality data, software, analytics, news and actionable insights to the energy industry.
“Analysis of our data indicates important operational trends that point to future Duvernay expansion,” noted Hancock. “We analyze plays like the Duvernay from the ground up to understand their extent. That means assessing, in detail, all available geological, geophysical and engineering data to understand the anatomy of the reservoir and then comparing results to existing proven and productive shale reservoirs (analogues) across North America.”
Hancock believes the presence of operating companies such as Kiwetinohk Energy Corp. — one with an openly-declared sustainability strategy — is a good barometer for understanding the Duvernay’s future potential.
“We can take a company like Kiwetinohk and analyze everything from its current completions design and facilities build-out to its free cash-flow generation and capital discipline,” noted Hancock. “We can then also analyze the company’s monthly production volumes and calculate emissions values and measure those things against its net-zero objectives and investor expectations. Company by company, we can build up a full review of the play to understand its importance in a Canadian economic context.”
Hancock’s experience and knowledge of both conventional and unconventional plays within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin was an important consideration for geoLOGIC, noted president and COO Terry Jbeili.
“The strength, growth and value proposition we bring to our customers is in the way we seamlessly link great data, tools and software to the right subject matter expertise for feedback,” he explained. “With more than 40 years of exploration experience in Western Canada, Bruce’s understanding of the basin’s subsurface morphology can effectively complement our data and workflow process.”
As part of its portfolio of energy intelligence products, geoLOGIC offers tools such as geoXPLORER, basinINTEL, CanOils and geoROCK that collectively provide a range of integrated operational and financial insights and intelligence, noted Hancock.
geoLOGIC’s technical team recently conducted a Duvernay workshop for the Canadian Society for Unconventional Resources. Those presentations were covered by the Daily Oil Bulletin: