Daily Oil Bulletin: Sep 20, 2012
$17.31-Million Parcel In The Calgary Area Highlights Alberta's Wednesday Land Sale
By Richard Macedo
Alberta brought in $36.57 million at its land sale yesterday, bringing the year-to-date bonus total to $872.66 million.
A total of 241,006 hectares exchanged hands at an average of $151.71 per hectare. So far in 2012, the province has sold 2.44 million hectares at an average price of $357.98 per hectare. At this point last year, Alberta had taken in $2.76 billion on the sale of 3.25 million hectares at an average price of $850.03.
Highlights of this week's sale included an auction-high bonus bid of $17.31 million by Stomp Energy Ltd. for a 3,621.88-hectare licence parcel. The broker paid an average of $4,779.08 for several sections at 24-03W5 and 25-03W5 just to the northwest of the City of Calgary near Cochrane.
Steve Hager, senior exploration analyst with Canadian Discovery Ltd., said that this licence and an adjacent one that sold for $2.35 million are located between Calgary and Cochrane and include all petroleum and natural gas rights to the base of the Cardium.
"That is the target," he said.
The nearest major Cardium production is directly to the north at Lochend, where the Cardium A,C, E pool has produced 5.4 million bbls of oil from 132 wells since its discovery in 1961.
"That pool is currently being developed using horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracs," Hager added.
At the end of last month, two new pool wildcat horizontal oil wells were licensed in the area byBernum Petroleum Ltd., both in the Lochend area. One was located at surface location 13-03-25-03W5 with the Joli Fou formation listed as the total depth zone to an anticipated depth of 3,535 metres. The other, at 16-18-25-03W5, has a planned depth of 3,850 metres with the Blackstone formation listed as the total depth zone.
"I think this parcel was purchased for Cardium," Brad Hayes, president of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd., said about the $17.31-million licence parcel. "Rights are posted only to the base of the Cardium, and there has been considerable Cardium oil activity in the area."
Also in yesterday's sale, the province received only $173,015 in oilsands bonus revenue on 1,536 hectares at an average of $112.64 per hectare. So far in 2012, Alberta has brought in $9.71 million in oilsands land sale revenue for 73,776 hectares.