With a maiden drilling campaign planned for December this year, Calima Energy (ASX:CE1) has awarded drilling contracts for three wells located in Canada’s Montney basin – the nation’s hottest oil and gas play – to local operator Precision Drilling.
The initial drill program will hit what the company is hoping will be a liquids-rich northern extension of the Montney Formation.
The Montney is Canada’s most prolific energy province with over 350 horizontal wells drilled in the first quarter of this year alone.
Calima holds 72,000 acres of land and has also recently raised $25 million in an oversubscribed placement to drill the tenement.
Precision Drilling holds significant experience operating in the basin. Rig 379, which will drill the first hole in the Calima Lands, is already successfully operating and will be re-deployed as soon as access to site improves.
The fist drilling operation will be a vertical well designed to calibrate stratigraphy and collect core samples. The second and third wells will have 2,500 m horizontal sections which will be stimulated and placed on extended production tests.
Commenting on the impending campaign, Calima managing director Alan Stein said:
We are delighted to have been able to secure Rig 379 from Precision Drilling.
“The track record of Precision Rig 379 was an important part of the rig selection process. The operational schedule remains on track to start drilling before the end of the year,” he said.
Precision Drilling is the largest drilling rig contractor in Canada, with access to a vast fleet of contract drilling rigs, totalling 257 across the globe.