Production in the first quarter jumped 35 per cent to 75,600 barrels of oil equivalent from 56,000 boe/d a year ago. It grew eight per cent from the fourth quarter of 2010.
“We’ve had a great start to 2011,” said Scott Saxberg, president and chief executive, on a conference call with investors. “We’ve exceeded our production targets for the first quarter.”
The company said it drilled seven wells, including an unconventional well, into the Alberta Bakken, a new exploration area in the southern part of the province, but would not comment on what it encountered.
It said it expects to spend $31 million in southern Alberta in 2011, drilling 14 net wells.
Earlier this week, Calgary junior DeeThree Exploration Ltd. revealed its first Alberta Bakken well flowed at a rate of 250 barrels of oil and 250,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day after a seven-day cleanup.
The well had a 15-stage oil-based fracture stimulation on a 1,300-metre horizontal leg. It reported no measurable amounts of water were recovered and oil and gas samples were sweet.
“It’s a very early, early play,” said Saxberg on the call. “We have a million acres out there. A lot of drilling to be done. In that area, between ourselves and our competitors, there are over 30 wells licensed to be drilled and then south of the border another 26, so significant drilling activity.”