Overview
Our exploration and development activity in our Canadian region is concentrated in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and to a minor degree the Northwest Territories. The region comprises 23 percent of our estimated proved reserves, the second largest in the Company. We hold five million net acres in Canada, the largest of our North American regions. This year we drilled 348 wells with 287 completed as producers.
Exploration wells comprised 9 percent of the net wells drilled, up from six percent in 2006. We performed 478 workover and recompletion projects. We currently estimate spending approximately $600 million in 2008 to drill 394 wells. Our 2008 drilling program will include 358 low-risk development wells and 36 higher risk, higher potential exploration wells in NEBC and Alberta.
Apache continues to target shallow gas including coal bed methane (CBM) in fields such as Provost and Nevis and through these efforts has emerged as one of Canada’s largest producers of CBM. The North and South Grant Lands obtained through farm-in agreements discussed below provide additional CBM potential. Also in 2008 we will continue our pursuit of the emerging shale gas play in NEBC, where we have now acquired over 200,000 highly prospective net acres, with a nine well winter drilling program.
Apache signed farm-in agreements in 2004 and 2005 with ExxonMobil covering over one million acres of undeveloped properties in the province of Alberta. Under the agreements, Apache drilled to earn an interest in the land while ExxonMobil retained a royalty on fee lands and a convertible working interest on leasehold acreage.
Through the end of 2007, Apache had drilled a total of 751 wells on the farm-in acreage from both agreements.
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Finding a way
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