No Valentines date for rig hand

Don’t expect a rig hand to make a date on Valentines. He’s hopefully working on one of the 38 rigs in the field.

BY BRIAN ZINCHUK
pipelineonline.ca

Don’t expect a drilling rig hand to make it to a Valentines date, because that’s the time of year they can make the most money.

With freezing temperatures back, there’s only a month or so left in the winter drilling season before spring breakup, which usually is announced within a few days of March 15. So it’s time for the big push to get holes drilled before the spring pause.

Stampede Drilling Rig 22 near Lampman on Jan. 27. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

According to RiggerTalk.com, using data from the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC), there were 38 drilling rigs working in Saskatchewan on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

Cenovus Energy Inc. had Precision Drilling Rig 197 at Paradise Hill and PD Rig 198 west of Silver Lake Regional Park. South of Maidstone, Gear Energy Ltd. employed Ensign Drilling Rig 361, while a few kilometres southeast of that, Baytex Energy Ltd. had PD Rig 155 drilling. At Winter, Strathcona Resources Inc. had Bonanza Drilling Rig 3 making hole.

That’s it for northwest Saskatchewan; just five rigs.

Moving to west central Saskatchewan, Longshore Resources employed Tempo Drilling Company Inc. Rig 3 north of Macklin, close to the Alberta border. At Cactus Lake, Strathcona had Bonanza Rig 1 drilling.

There was a cluster around Kerrobert. Baytex had Savanna Drilling Rig 425 west of Kerrobert and Savanna Rig 441 southwest of town. Teine Energy had Ensign Rig 350 southeast of Kerrobert.

East of Dodsland, Ensign Rig 356 was drilling for Whitecap Resources Inc.

Teine’s next rig was Ensign Rig 351 at Hoosier. They had Ensign Rig 7 north of Netherhill at Kiyiu Lake. One more Teine Rig was Ensign Rig 537 north of Eston.

Ish Energy Ltd. had Lasso Drilling Corp. Rig 6 just southwest of Kindersley.

Whitecap had on rig pushing the edges of the play, halfway between Elrose and Beechy. That was Bonanza Rig 2.

Moving down to southwest Saskatchewan, there was only one rig drilling for oil, but two drilling for helium. North American Helium had Savanna Rig 606 drilling west of Cantuar and Savanna Rig 629 northeast of Neville. Whitecap had Savanna Rig 416 drilling south of Gull Lake.

In the southeast, there were 18 rigs drilling. From west to east, Panther Drilling Rig 3 was drilling for Vermilion Energy south of Radville. Harvard Resources Inc. employed Stampede Drilling Ltd. Rig 8 southwest of Weyburn. Stampede Rig 4 was drilling for Tundra Oil & Gas north of Beaubier.

Just south of Halbrite, Panther Rig 2 was drilling for Whitecap.

Crescent Point Energy Corp had Savanna Drilling Rig 419 drilling near Innes. Their second rig was PD Rig 195 east of Corning.

Alliance Drilling Ltd. Rig 3 was working for Hummingbird Oil east of Viewfield.

Whitecap had Ensign Rig 423 east of Benson. Surge Energy Inc. had Stampede Rig 3 drilling southeast of Stoughton.

Straight north of Lampman, Whitecap had Stampede Rigs 22 and 17 drilling.  South of Lampman, Stampede Rig 2 was drilling for Surge Energy Inc.

At Willmar, Woodland Development Corp. had Stampede Rig 7 working.

Saturn Oil & Gas had Ensign Rig 41 drilling west of Manor. South of Manor, Stampede Rig 1 was drilling for Triland Energy Inc.

Anova Resources had Betts Drilling Rig 3 north of Glen Ewen. Alliance Drilling Rig 2 was working for Midale Petroleums Ltd. northwest of Carnduff.

Finally, Stampede Drilling Rig 16 was working south of Lajord for Western Potash Corp.