Alberta Bakken / Exshaw

The Alberta Bakken: A Potential New, Unconventional Tight Oil Resource Play, Recovery -- 2011 CSPG C SEG CWLS Convention, 2011

From SeekingAlpha.com, December 29, 2010

• Part One
• Part Two

The Alberta Bakken Play, BeatingTheIndex.com, February 7, 2011

Interest from Montana Bakken Spilling Into Alberta, Nickle's Daily Oil Bulletin, August 3, 2010 (it appears this link is broken; I will leave it up, "just in case").

 NEWS

May 12, 2016: Granite Oil and natural gas injection. Also here. 

August 25, 2015: early luster seems to have vanished. Regardless of current pricing challenges, it appears the geology is a hard nut to crack.

October 6, 2014: Super Nova announces new well in the Alberta Bakken.

March 18, 2013: Norstra enters the Alberta Bakken.  Their presentation is a bit misleading. The company talks about 200 rigs in the Williston Basin Bakken and then the slide of the huge projection increase in North Dakota, and then slides into the Alberta Bakken which has not yet been sorted out.


December 7, 2012: Eco-Trade acquires 5,800 acres in the Alberta Bakken.

November 18, 2012: if these numbers pan out, the Alberta Bakken will be much bigger than the Williston Basin Bakken: 

Alberta’s emerging shale and/or siltstone formations could ultimately yield 423.6 billion barrels of oil, 58.6 billion barrels of liquids and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, says a long-awaited report by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board and the Alberta Geological Survey.

September 29, 2012: I think the Alberta Bakken is also referred to as the Exshaw.

August 22, 2012: Dee Three update in the Alberta Bakken. 

December 12, 2011: Rosetta will allocate only 5% of CAPEX to southern Alberta Bakken; 95% will be allocated to the Eagle Ford.


November 22, 2011: Update regarding the Alberta Bakken from the October 5, 2011, edition of the Calgary Herald.  Data points

• 2.6 billion bbls recoverable oil (similar to Williston Basin Bakken); 7 - 10 percent recoverable OIP
• References Canada's biggest conventional play, the Pembina oilfield, 8 billion bbls; only one-fifth produced since the 1950s
• Typical well: 250 bbls/day; $4 million to drill; breaks even at $70 (US)
• Canada side: 31 producing of 47 drilled; Montana side: 8 producing wells of 23 completed
• References the Williston Basin Bakken: both deposited at same time, but geology different
• In Montana, the most active driller: Newfield; others: Primary Petroleum, Abraxas, and American Eagle

April 7, 2011: FX Energy, Salt Lake City, will be re-entering a well in Cut Bank oil field, to test the Bakken, Lodgepole, Nisku, and Duperow. Cut Bank oil field is located in the following Montana counties: Glacier, Toole, and Pondera. I assume this the "Albert Basin Bakken."

Original Post: The Alberta Bakken

For those who remember my first posting on the Alberta Bakken may remember what I said. I completely misunderstood the Alberta Bakken. I first heard of the "Montana" Bakken when reading about Rosetta Resources.

There is, in fact, an Alberta Bakken that is similar in age to the Williston Basin ("North Dakota") Bakken. It appears to have exploded onto the web scene in the latter half of 2010. Much less is known about the Alberta Bakken (compared to the North Dakota Bakken) but it might be every much as exciting.

According to the map provided by BeatingtheIndex.com, the Alberta Basin is much, much smaller than the North Dakota Bakken (with regard to the overlying surface). It is roughly oval in shape, straddling the Montana/Alberta border, equal halves in both jurisdictions. It appears to be just east of the Rockie Mountains (if so, I-15 runs right through it), extending south towards Great Falls, Montana, and north into Canada, particularly around Lethbridge, and a bit farther north (about same latitude as Calgary but slightly east).

The momentum behind the Alberta Bakken only shifted into high gear in September, when Crescent Point -- the biggest player in Saskatchewan's Bakken -- disclosed that it had assembled more than one million net acres of undeveloped land south of Lethbridge that it regards as prospective for light oil. -- The Edmonton Journal, December 9, 2010

Data Points on the Alberta Bakken

• The "Alberta Bakken" is of a similar age as the North Dakota Bakken (called the Saskatchewan Bakken in Canada)
• The Alberta Basin Bakken is much smaller in size (overlying surface area) than the Williston Basin Bakken. It is oval in shape, equal halves in Montana/Alberta, straddling the US/Canadian border north of Great Falls, Montana, and south of Lethbridge, Alberta.
• Crescent Point quietly amassed one million mineral acres in the Alberta Basin, announcing their holdings in late 2010
• There is significantly much less known about the Alberta Bakken compared to the Alberta Bakken and it will take longer to explore and develop
• Producers often mentioned in connection with the Alberta Bakken: Rosetta, Newfield, Crescent Point, and Murphy Oil
• There is another "Montana Bakken" in central Montana but this is targeting a different formation. Rosetta Resources has a major role there

Additional Links

Investment site, Alberta Bakken 1
Investment site, Alberta Bakken 2 
Investment opportunities in the Alberta Bakken, December, 2010

Background Regarding This Posting

The Alberta Bakken is garnering increasing interest and I am being sent comments regarding this, "the next big thing."

I have enough trouble keeping up with the North Dakota Bakken so am conflicted how to handle posting information on the Alberta Bakken. This site is focused on the North Dakota Bakken and I don't want to muddy the waters by adding another oil play.

So, that's how I will handle it: I will occasionally post notes about the Alberta Bakken and link it on the sidebar at the right.