While the oil sands, the Clearwater, and the Montney get lots of headlines when it comes to oil production growth in Canada, one Canadian oil play that is flying somewhat under the radar is the Sparky oil play.
In fact, oil production growth out of the Sparky formation has made it the 4th largest producing zone in Canada, although obviously well behind the oil sands for oil production.
In total, oil production from the Sparky has reached 70,000 bbl/d, up 83% from the 2020 COVID lows, and up 14% year-over-year.
The number of producing licences has remained steady over the last several years, suggesting a step change improvement in production rates as operators show success with mutli-lateral wells.
This article uses charts, data, and maps from StackDX Intel and StackDX Maps. Click here for more details on the StackDX suite of software solutions for oil & gas data.
Figure 1 – Sparky oil production
The most active companies focusing on the Sparky oil play include Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus, Caltex Trilogy, Surge Energy, and Baytex Energy (Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Most active companies in the Sparky (last 365 days)
Caltex Trilogy is one private company that has had success in the Sparky (and elsewhere), with almost half of its production coming from the play. Its corporate production growth (on a gross licensed basis) is shown below in Figure 3.
Figure 3 – Caltex Trilogy – total gross licensed production
The Sparky formation is part of the Mannville Stack (Figure 4), and these days is usually targeted with horizontal multi-lateral wells in various areas along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
Figure 4 – Formation finder
(Check out our formation finder here)
Figure 5 shows the locations of the spud activity over the last decade targeting the Sparky.
Figure 5 – Sparky spuds over the last decade
