From the Pacific to the Atlantic and the Arctic to Colombia, North American onshore projects show innovation at work.

Watching the onshore oil and gas industry in North America is like watching a powerful engine at work, an engine that provides power to operate a continent and needs continuous injections of new supplies.
The diversity of those supplies is found no other place on earth. It ranges from traditional oil and gas to Canada's heavy oil, Colorado's shale oil, unconventional gas from coalbed methane in several basins, basin-center anomalously pressured gas that's nearly invisible to traditional seismic surveys and gas from tight sands that test the art and science of fracture treatments.
The Arctic
The Canadian Arctic is poised for a boom. Petro-Canada drilled the first well in some 20 years in the area, and contractors have been building Arctic-capable rigs all summer to get ready for anticipated activity.
Several US and Canadian companies have bid millions of dollars for unreserved tracts of land on the Mackenzie Delta. And the three big landholders - Imperial Oil, Shell Canada and ExxonMobil Canada - are studying the feasibility of building a gas pipeline with a capacity of 1.1 Bcf/d down the Mackenzie Valley. Conoco Inc., which recently bought into the Arctic play with its US $4.3 billion acquisition of Gulf Canada, said they aren't moving fast enough.
Some 6 Tcf of gas has been discovered to feed the pipeline, which could be finished as early as 2007, but development work still must be done.
On Alaska's North Slope, business continues at a heightened pace as Phillips, BP and ExxonMobil try to decide where to build a gas pipeline to the Lower 48 United States to move an estimated 4 Bcf/d of gas.
Meanwhile, exploration continues. Phillips discovered the Nanuq field near its Alpine discovery about 3 miles (5 km) south of the village of Nuiqsut and just east of the Colville River. The field holds an estimated 40 million bbl of oil.
Cominco Alaska Inc. also plans a four-well, rank wildcat in extreme northwestern Alaska on the Walik River.
Canada
Although the rig count has declined in Canada since 2000, activity remains extremely strong by historical standards as operators choose from several hot plays.
In the far west, the British Columbia government is considering opening that coast to exploration. Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Petro-Canada are champing at the bit, since they already hold long-term licenses for the Queen Charlotte Islands near the Alaskan border.
Priority Ventures Inc. is prospecting for coalbed methane on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Moving farther east, several companies are beginning to open coalbed methane exploration in British Columbia and southern Alberta.
Alberta's biggest oil play is the booming heavy oil sand area in the north and east. Billion-dollar programs pop up continually as operators seek to develop reserves greater than those of Saudi Arabia. The latest program is a $2.3 billion Shell Canada Ltd. project at the Muskeg River Mine, designed to produce 225,000 b/d beginning late next year. Japan Canada Oil Sands also has a $350 million program in the works.
Canada's National Energy Board said it had understated those heavy oil resources in the past. They actually total 49.9 billion bbl, or 20% more than previous estimates.
The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin - the focus of Canadian activity - includes a planned 18,205 wells this year. That drilling level is 15% higher than last year in Alberta and Saskatchewan and 30% higher than in British Columbia.
The prolific Foothills play remains the center of attraction for Alberta and British Columbia. It was one of the reasons Devon Energy acquired Anderson Exploration of Calgary for $3.4 billion. Canadian Natural Resources' d-74-G/94-H-1 in the Ladyfern area tested at 100 MMcf/d of gas.
Off the east coast, Petro-Canada has its Terra Nova floating production, storage and offloading vessel on station. It should be producing oil offshore Newfoundland by the end of the year.
In addition, TGS-Nopec Geophysical Co. is conducting a 2,480-mile (3,990-km) 2-D seismic survey in western Greenland and eastern Canadian waters.
Farther south, several companies have submitted bids for property offshore Sable Island, southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Sable gas program is producing, and operators look forward to the Phase II expansion and PanCanadian Petroleum's development of its Deep Panuke gas prospect.
Western United States
On the US West Coast, drilling action is up sharply in the northern California gas play north and east of San Francisco, but the big action remains in Kern County, inland north and east of Los Angeles.
Oil activity remains strong in one of the biggest producing areas in the country as operators refine their techniques to get heavy California oil out of the ground.
Chevron and Schlumberger recently said they would pool intellectual resources to try and get more oil out of the ground at Lost Hills field
At the same time, several operators are working the fairly new Temblor Formation deep gas play in the county. One group is working the East Lost Hills program, following up work on the initial well in the program, which blew out for some 6 months at rates estimated as high as 100 MMcf/d of gas. Depths below 20,000 ft (6,100 m) have created some drilling problems, but most of the wells are finding gas.
Aera Energy, the biggest operator in California, is getting into the program now.
Rocky Mountains
The US Rocky Mountain region has earned the attention of operators as the greatest source of untapped gas in the onshore Lower 48 states.
Shell tried to buy out Barrett Resources' highly prospective operation in the Rockies but lost in a bidding contest with the Williams Cos.
Barrett has a strategic position along the Owl Creek Thrust in Wyoming's Wind River Basin. That thrust zone produced Barrett's Cave Gulch field with probable reserves of more than 1 Tcf of gas.
Farther west, Jonah field is an example of a new opportunity to find basin-center gas trapped in overpressured and underpressured zones. That will yield at least 1 Tcf of gas, and the Pinedale Anticline play immediately northwest is likely to provide the same reserves.
BP reportedly is looking for 2 Tcf in reserves from its Wamsutter field in south-central Wyoming.
Cheap wells and high returns have encouraged the biggest play in the Rocky Mountains - the search for coalbed methane in basins throughout Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Some companies report finding, drilling and producing coalbed methane for as little as $0.27/Mcf.
The Powder River Basin coalbed methane play in northeastern Wyoming will produce for thousands of wells before it is worked out. Other methane-rich basins are the San Juan and Raton basins in New Mexico and Colorado, the Piceance Basin of Colorado, the Uinta Basin in Utah and the Hanna and Greater Green River basins of Wyoming. A new play is beginning in Montana.
Another play is reawakening in the Rocky Mountains as Shell Exploration and Production has started a shale oil test program in the western Colorado triangle formed by Meeker, Rifle and Parachute. The company isn't talking about the method it is using.
Previously used methods, deemed too costly, involved mining the oil-laden shale and "cooking" the oil out in retorts, either above ground or in situ.
Like Canada's heavy oil, Colorado shale oil resources are larger than Saudi Arabia's reserves.
Seven of the past 10 giant fields in North America have been found in the Rockies.
Permian Basin
The Permian Basin hasn't seen many new plays lately, but the development and further exploration of existing plays is more than enough to keep operators occupied.
Touchstone Resources USA Inc. and Blue Star Operating tested the No. 1 Morton "23" Devonian well at 14,000 ft (4,270 m) at 2,400 b/d of oil on a drillstem test.
On the southeastern New Mexico side of the basin, independents continue to develop basin shelf formations and deeper Morrow pay.
Midcontinent
Operators in the Midcontinent hope Kansas will get increased production from a new pipeline that brings CO2 gas into the state from Colorado. Operators would like to use the enhanced-recovery gas to get more of their oil out of the ground.
Deep gas discoveries still are coming from the deep Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma. El Paso Production Co. completed its No. 1-15 Dragon from Pennsylvanian Upper Morrow at 16,830 ft (5,133 m) for 23.5 MMcf/d of gas.
Arkansas continues to turn up wells such as Arkana Operating Co.'s No. 1-15 Link new-field opener testing 2.4 MMcf/d of gas.
Pope County, Ark., gained a new-field opener when Arkana Operating Co. Inc. gauged a flow of 2.4 MMcf/d of gas during preliminary tests of the No. 1-15 Link, in Section 15-9n-19w. The Tulsa, Okla., firm's discovery was tested on a 24/64-in. choke in Pennsylvanian Hale, perforated at 2,549 ft to 2,562 ft (777 m to 781 m) and 2,569 ft to 2,593 ft (784 m to 791 m). It was drilled to a 6,335-ft (1,932-m) TD to evaluate zones through Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle.
Gulf Coast
The US Gulf Coast is one of North America's treasure houses of energy. The good stuff never stops. From the Wilcox and Frio plays in South Texas to the prolific Bossier trend in East Texas through the multiple zones of Louisiana and Mississippi, operators are looking deeper and finding high pay rates like Swift Energy's 12.8 MMcf/d Frio well in Wallacy County, Texas, and BP's 23.1 MMcf/d gas well in the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa at 20,000 ft (6,100 m) in Point Coupee Parish, La.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. pioneered the Bossier play in east Texas and has drilled more than 300 wells with only one dry hole to produce low-cost gas. The play is more than 2 years old, and new operators continue to come in to try their skills. A typical well produces between 2 MMcf/d and 4 MMcf/d of gas.
Northeast
The biggest news in the Northeast is the Ordovician Trenton-Black River. This deep gas play has produced wells with test rates as high as 50 MMcf/d of gas for Columbia Natural Resources Inc., and other operators are trying to improve that record, mostly in New York and West Virginia.
In other parts of the region, the Silurian Niagaran formations of the Michigan Basin continue to produce healthy wells.

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