本省将进入很好的油井冬季开采期

howardx · 发表于 2006-9-9 10:45

EDMONTONJOURNAL SEPT.9
Winter's going to be good for Alberta's drilling rigs
Winter's going to be good for Alberta's drilling rigs
Larger targets taking longer to tap
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Trinidad Drilling/Mastco Derrick unveiled four new drilling rigs in their Nisku yards Friday including Trinidad #48, a huge triple, which will be put to work around Houston, Tex. Trinidad employee Joe Downey puts a guard on the top drive of #48.
Photograph by : John Lucas, The Journal
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Font: * * * * Gordon Jaremko, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, September 09, 2006
EDMONTON - Drilling will accelerate to a hot pace again this winter, a prominent oilfield contracting firm predicted Friday while expanding its rig fleet.

The number of new wells is dropping but not the work, because the industry is switching to larger targets that take longer to tap, said Trinidad Drilling operations vice-president Brian Banks.

"Winter's going to be good," predicted Banks, who is also a director of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors.

"We're building big rigs that go after the deeper gas," said Trinidad business development vice-president Adrian Lachance.

Derricks of three new units tower over the firm's yard at Nisku. By the end of the year, the company plans to field 14 additions to its fleet in Canada and the United States.

Jumbo rigs run by Trinidad drill as deep as 5,500 metres and are worth up to $14.5 million.

Rising sticker prices and long lineups for new equipment prompted the firm to take over Canada's biggest land drilling-rig manufacturer, Edmonton's Mastco Derrick Service Ltd., for $61.8 million earlier this year.

Demand for drilling rigs cooled off this summer due to expansion of the western Canadian fleet and soft natural gas prices that cut spending on shallow wells that produce low volumes of gas from small geological reservoirs and coal seams.

The number of rigs available in Western Canada increased by 148, or 22 per cent, to 810 from 662 over the past four years. The number of wells drilled will drop to 23,410 this year, down seven per cent from 25,290 last year, said a summer forecast by the Petroleum Services Association of Canada.

But gas prices are expected to recover and demand for new supplies is still running so hot that all of Trinidad's new rigs are booked up for three years, Lachance and Banks said. The company builds equipment only if its use is assured by long contracts, they added.

Canadian industry standard contracts guarantee rigs 250 to 280 paid working days per year, allowing for three to four months of downtime when spring melting and fall rain or snow stop heavy equipment. In the U.S., where drilling is not seasonal, contracts cover every day of the year.

Western Canada's rig population is expected to grow to a total of 830 rigs by the end of this year, said Banks. About 80 per cent of the oilfield activity and equipment is in Alberta.

The combination of an expanding rig fleet and reduced well numbers has slowed or stopped increases in rates charged by drilling contractors -- at least for now, Banks and Lachance said.

But the long-range trend in industry activity still favours growth by the oilfield service and supply sector, they added.

An old Alberta pattern -- brief bursts of activity followed with long slumps -- has been replaced by short lulls between lengthening busy seasons. Lows also are turned into highs by historical standards. "The peaks and valleys are a lot closer together now," Banks said.

As of this week, 500 rigs were working across Western Canada including 363 in Alberta. A year earlier, 578 rigs were employed, 450 of them in Alberta.

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