ENTERPRISE - The only company that conducted any drilling in the NWT this year was not a junior exploration company but a well-established Northern shipper of oil and gas.

Paramount Resources used this, one of two drills, to conduct a five-well drilling program last winter at its Cameron Hills fields, located 30 to 40 km northeast of Enterprise. It was the only oil and gas company to conduct drilling in the NWT this year. - photo courtesy of Paramount Resources

Paramount Resources, based in Calgary, drilled a total of five wells over a five mile stretch of land within its Cameron Hills oil and gas field, located approximately 30 to 40 km northeast of Enterprise.

The company's five-kilometre long Cameron Hills pipeline carries natural gas and oil to a processing plant near Bistcho Lake, Alta.

The aim of this year's drilling program was to add new producing wells to the field which, in 2009, produced 65 million cubic metres of gas and 32,783 cubic metres of oil.

By comparison, during the previous year, the field produced 77 million cubic metres of gas and 47,903 cubic metres of oil.

"We brought on no new production to date," but the company is in the midst of acquiring the necessary water licence to begin producing from the only find of the program, a gas well, said Lloyd Doyle, a spokesperson for Paramount.

"We're at the point of the reviewers draft conditions for that permit," he said.

The project, which ultimately came in at a cost of $12 million, was comprised of two drills running concurrently from early January to late February. The company originally planned to drill as many as eight wells, but bad weather prevented that.

As many as 15 people worked each drill during peak operating times, and while Paramount encouraged its contractor, Calgary-based Precision Drilling, to hire Northerners for the program, Precision could not be reached as of press time to provide further details.

"They have crews that follow the rigs, but I know they made an effort to advertise in a couple of the Northern newspapers for crews," said Doyle. The Town of For Providence provided a first-air truck, he added.

Having producing wells not only in the NWT but in Alberta, Montana and North Dakota makes it far easier for Paramount to mount drilling projects than junior exploration companies, which have no revenue coming in, said Doyle.

"We're able to borrow money because we have some sort of cash flow. MGM (Energy) has no cash flow, so they can’t borrow money. They can only issue equity to raise money."

Uncertainty over the Mackenzie Gas Project doesn't help companies like MGM either, he added.

"Without that pipeline, each well that you drill basically becomes a liability." Paramount is already planning to drill three more wells at Cameron Hills this winter, said Doyle.

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