Help choose Oilweek's 2010 Producer of the Year!
Over the last few months, I've been sorting through your nominations for Oilweek's 2010 Producer of the Year awards, and now the real fun begins. You get to vote on our five finalists.
This year, from online nominations and straw polls amongst the editorial types here at JuneWarren-Nickle's Energy Group, we've narrowed your choices down to five finalists. All that's left now is to vote, with the results to be featured in our December issue. Sans a red carpet for the nominees to walk down, I'll just give you the skinny on each of them here, before you head back to Oilweek.com, where you can vote for one of the five, or to 2010 Producer of the Year where you can also cast your vote. In alphabetical order, the five finalists are:
Apache Canada Apache Canada has quickly emerged as one of the “go-to” operators in the hot Horn River shale gas play in northeastern British Columbia, largely on the strength of its joint venture with Encana. But it’s not resting on those laurels, and earlier this year acquired a 51% stake in the Kitimat LNG project on the west coast and is working to close a $3.4 billion deal for BP properties in Alberta and British Columbia. Exploration and development spending in Canada for this year has been budgeted at some $1 billion, more than twice the 2009 number, and the focus will, not surprisingly, be on the Horn River, where 36 horizontal wells were drilled in the first half of the year. Apache is also actively exploring shale gas prospects in New Brunswick.
Legacy Oil + Gas Referred to by the executive director of the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada as “emblematic of the new breed of junior and intermediate producers in Canada”, Legacy Oil + Gas earns a Producer of the Year nomination by virtue of its rapid rise through the ranks of Oilweek’s Top 100 in 2009, and its continued growth this year. Jumping to 81st on the 2009 Top 100 list from seventh on the Next 25 list in 2008, Legacy has posted impressive numbers this year: second quarter production was a stratospheric 5,717 boe per day, compared to 391 boe per day in the same period last year; operating costs through six months this year were slashed to $13.12 per boe from $19.73 per boe; operating netbacks jumped to $48.42 per boe from $29.72 per boe. On second quarter production numbers alone, Legacy Oil + Gas stands to take another leap of 20 spots or more in Oilweek’s 2010 Top 100 rankings.
Penn West Energy Penn West Energy is quickly emerging as a leading player in the Cardium horizontal play in central Alberta, with more than 650,000 net acres in the main trend. Through the first half of the year, it had three rigs running in the Cardium, punching down the first 13 wells of 50 wells planned for 2010 despite wet weather that slowed work significantly. Its first Cardium well at Willesden Green recently tested 3,000 boe per day, and in its first month of production averaged more than 850 boe per day. For the balance of this year, Penn West’s capital program – which has been topped up by $150 million in the fourth quarter – will focus on the resource-play potential of the Cardium in areas such as Pembina and Willesden Green, on light-oil resource opportunities in the Lower Amaranth of Waskada in southwest Manitoba, and on continuing redevelopment projects in the light-oil pools of the Viking formation at Dodsland, in Saskatchewan.
Progress Energy Resources Progress Energy Resources’ two primary operating regions are the Deep Basin of northern Alberta and the foothills of northern British Columbia, both considered among the most desirable resource play regions in North America. In 2009, Progress Energy was the biggest mover in Oilweek’s Top 100, leaping to 26th from 46th with the January 2009 acquisition of ProEx Energy, and it’s now considered a major participant in the hot Montney play of northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta. Capital expenditures are budgeted at $350 million for 2010, and just recently it spent $390 million to acquire properties in the foothills region of B.C. with 7,300 boe/day of production and substantial reserve upside, contiguous to its existing properties in the Town, Bubbles and Blueberry/Beg areas. Progress Energy’s focus is already starting to pay off: first half gas production was up 16 per cent, total production rose to 39,319 boer per day from 33,495 boe per day and operating expenses were down nine per cent, to $6.30 per boe.
Talisman Energy Talisman Energy has a diversified, global portfolio of oil and natural gas assets, and in 2009 produced some 425,000 boe per day, split evenly between natural gas and liquids, from its three main operating areas in North America, the North Sea and Southeast Asia. Late last year, the company undertook a major reorganization of its North American operations into two distinct businesses, shale and conventional, and announced the acceleration of its shale programs in North America, which were allocated a capital budget of $1.6 billion in 2010. In Pennsylvania, Talisman plans to drill more than 200 development and pilot wells this year, while in the Montney, work is continuing to bring shale assets at Farrell Creek and Greater Cypress to commercial status. Talisman’s main focus will be on shale gas for some time to come: in the second quarter this year, it completed asset sales to the tune of $1.3 billion, added another $200 million to the sale ledger subsequent to the second quarter, and expects to realize a total of $1.9 billion in North American non-core asset sales by the end of this year. There you have them: five worthy candidates for your consideration. And don't forget to check out the winners in Oilweek's December edition.
