It should be no surprise the last 12 months have brought a bit of a boom back to communities in rural Alberta – at least when one considers the stats in the Energy Resources Conservation Board’s 2011 annual report.
That report, released in late June, notes that Alberta’s conventional oil production increased in 2011 for the first time since 1995.
Conventional crude production was up 7 per cent in 2011 over 2010, the result of higher production rates in horizontal wells. That stat bodes well for development in and around more traditional oilpatch communities such as Taber, Drayton Valley, Edson, Hinton, Red Deer and Leduc.
Oilsands crude bitumen production was also up by about 8 per cent in 2011, a figure that was expected by the regulator and those in the booming industry centred around Fort McMurray and stretching to Cold Lake. Oil prices were in the US$85 range as of press time.
This article from the August 2012 Western Investor.
