The Duvernay oil patch is a shale deposit and is the oldest oil field in Alberta.It is considered to be 230,000 acres in dimension with another 200,000 acres of prospective acres.
The first oil well drilled in Alberta was the Leduc well drilled in 1947.However Leduc was considered a thin oil zone and started at only 5300 feetThe new Duvernay wells are directly below the original wells.They are considered to be Canada”s largest marketable reserves of shale oil. The Duvernay reservoir has very large reserves of natural gas and natural gas liquids with smaller amounts of oil.The liquids have very good porosity.The liquid is classified as overpressured;the pressure comes from the layers of rock above the oil zone.This pressure increases recoverable reserves and increases the flow rates.And the Duvermnay is considered to be only in the early to middle stages of development. The new Duvernay wells are drilled at greater depths than the original wells and can go as deep as 4000 metres.Producers have found that the upper shale is not as productive as the deeper shale.For example, in 2022, 4 out of the 5 best producing wells in Alberta were from the Kay Bob Duvernay region.Most of these wells have multi pads which puts several wells into the same oil source.Both Athabasca Oil and Cenovus and Crescent Point Energy are drilling in Kay Bob East but more discovery is now going on in the northern Kay Bob region./
The Kay Bob
The Kay Bob region is considered to be the hot spot in the Duvernay oil field.Consequently activity in the Greater KayBob area is picking up; with 20 wells spud in Q1 2022 compared to 34 wells in all of 2021..And land values jumped from $50 an acre in 2015 to $2000 an acre in2018.As the Duvernay is considered to have the largest marketable reserves of shale oil For example,$209 million was spent on development in 2022.Murphy Oil and Chevron own large tracts of land in the Kay Bob.Smaller parcels of land are owned by Cresent Point, Baytex and Athabasca Oil.
2024
The Montney formation is connected to the Duvernay field but it is mostly in British Columbia.And the Montney contains mosty natural gas.And in 2024 it is expected that more natural gas will be transported to LNG facilities.As likely one or two LNG facilities will be operational.Altagas is now opertational and is expected to be more profitable in 2024.The Duvernay already contains many oil wells .Several oil wells now have above average netbacks.This blog expects much more drilling here in 2024.This blog sees the price of oil heading towards $80/barrel in early to mid 2024.The key Canadian operators in the Kay Bob, all should outperform their competitors in the Alberta Sedimentary Basin.These companies include Crescent Point,Baytex,Athabasca Oil and Cenovus. 
Dale Mcintyre M.S.Sc (econ) is a freelance writer that writes articles ptrincipally for Zacks Research and Marketbeat.com.https://www.zacks.com/
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