Oil Sands Field Services

Situation: A Canadian junior oil and gas exploration company acquired several oil sands leases north of Fort McMurray. Within 12 months they wanted to conduct a core drilling program, develop a sub-surface geological model of the area, and produce resource estimates of their leases. Norwest was retained to manage and execute all aspects the program. 

Solution: The program was conducted in three phases, a planning and permitting phase, a project execution phase, and a reporting phase. During the planning and permitting phase of the project, the Norwest team developed a 200 core hole exploration plan over the leases that would satisfy the lease obligations and resource reporting requirements. All of the required exploration and environmental permits and agreements were acquired. Norwest’s tendering process was used to select and contract all key service providers including on-site safety services, surveyors, drilling rigs, geophysical logging, camp construction, and road building contractors. Norwest’s cost control system was customized to meet the client’s specific accounting system requirements.

Norwest executed the program within the three month winter drilling season with no lost time incidents. The program involved a core hole survey, installation of a 160 man camp, construction of approximately 300 km of winter road, and the drilling of 200 core holes. All of the desired core holes were completed with over 95 percent core recovery and transported to a lab in Calgary. At the lab, all cores were described by Norwest geologists and subsequently photographed and analyzed.

During the reporting phase, a detailed geological model was completed based on the core hole data. Norwest issued four reports documenting safety and environmental compliance, operations, an internal geological report, and a 51-101 compliant report intended for public disclosure of our independent resource estimate of the deposit.

Result:   As a result of the cost effective execution of the field program, in a safe and environmentally compliant manner, the client retained the services of Norwest to manage their drilling activities in other lease areas. The reports generated by Norwest assisted the client in securing additional financing to further develop their lease holdings and acquire additional lands.