Alberta Bakken from Beatingtheindex.com

Now that you're familiar with the Alberta Bakken oil play and the players in Southern Alberta, let's cover the players on the US side of the border in Montana. The same scenario is playing out in Montana where several companies are actively working to acquire as much prospective land as possible. The great part about this emerging light oil play is that it is watched by the majors on both sides of the border. American investors can get their exposure through US listed companies without having to go through the currency headache.




This map is displayed as is by BeatingTheIndex.com, with no guarantees as to the accuracy of the data. If you have a better map, please contact me and I will be glad to update this post with it. For now this should give you a pretty good idea on the play.





Who are the companies positioned to benefit from this emerging play? Let's start with a list of companies operating in Montana with a focus on junior and intermediate producers:



Abraxas Petroleum Corp. AXAS

Alberta Bakken Land: 10,000 net acres

AXAS has over 10,000 net acres in the Alberta Bakken in Glacier and Toole Counties, Montana. For 2011, the company is looking to acquire more acreage and has no immediate plans to start drilling. The primary driver will be the drilling results from other operators such as NFX.



Arkanova Energy Corporation AKVA

Alberta Bakken Land: 9,900 net acres

AKVA's 9,900 acres are located in Pondera County and Glacier County, Montana. Provident Energy Associates, a subsidiary of Arkanova, entered the completion phase of their horizontal infield Lower Cutbank Sand formation well, Tribal-Max 1-2817 in Glacier County, Montana. The well was spud in October, 2010 and directionally drilled to a total depth of 6,808 ft. This well will test the prospective Exshaw Shale (Alberta Basin Bakken), Sanish/Three Forks and Lodgepole formations. Significant results reported by the company will be a catalyst to ROSE and NFX's share prices.



Compton Petroleum CMTCMZPF

Alberta Bakken Land: 79,000 net acres

CMT has 79,000 net acres are located in Cascade County 35 miles west of Great Falls, Montana. They have no plans to drill and there's no drilling going on close to their lands. CMT doesn't look like it's made up its mind regarding the next course of action (Drill, JV, Sell, etc.)



Mountainview Energy Ltd MVW

Alberta Bakken Land: 74,000 net acres

MVW has 74,000 acres in Pondera County, Montana. For 2011, the company allocated $5.8 million for evaluating the Alberta Bakken potential on its land. The company's stock is currently halted due to a reverse takeover.



Newfield Exploration NFX

Alberta Bakken Land: 260,000 net acres

NFX has a nice chunk of land in Glacier County, Montana surrounded by ROSE and KWK. Any positive horizontal well results from this area will be a great catalyst to its share price. No results have been announced for its first horizontal well which forms the near term catalyst to this play. Results will certainly impact its well partner Stone Energy and the surrounding players Rosetta, QuickSilver and Abraxas.



Passport Energy PPO

Alberta Bakken Land: 26,000 net acres

PPO's leases are situated in Toole and Pondera Counties, Montana. It has a 60% WI in 43,500 gross acres of oil and gas leases. The company will be spending $3 million in 2010-2011 on exploration activities including at least an 8-well drill program.



Primary Petroleum PIEPETEF

Alberta Bakken Land: 220,000 net acres

PIE has over 200, 000 net acres of land primarily in Pondera and Teton Counties. Moving forward in 2011, the company is continuing its land acquisition strategy and executing a proprietary 3D seismic program to further delineate the prospects in advance of moving forward with a drilling program of up to 10 vertical and horizontal wells to test multi-zone formations on their land: Sunburst, Madison, Lodgepole, Bakken, Three Forks and Nisku.



Quicksilver Resources Inc. KWK

Alberta Bakken Land: 119,000 net acres

The Company expects to spud its first horizontal well in 2011. It has approximately 119,000 net prospective acres held by production in Glacier and Toole Counties, MT.



Rosetta Resources ROSE

Alberta Bakken Land: 300,000 net acres

ROSE confirmed significant oil hydrocarbons in pace and over-pressurize reservoirs in the Banff, Middle Bakken, Three Forks and Nisku formations after drilling 4 vertical wells in 2010. It also estimates 13-15 MMboe per square mile of resource in place. For 2011, ROSE is planning to drill 5 additional wells. A near term catalyst to ROSE would be positive results from NFX's first horizontal well.



Stone Energy Corporation SGY

Alberta Bakken Land: 35,000 net acres

SGY has 35,000 net prospective acres for the Alberta Bakken, in Glacier County, Montana. NFX is the operator as SGY's acreage represents its 35% WI in Newfield's land. As part owner in NFX's first horizontal well, any catalyst to NFX's share price will automatically apply to SGY.



Vecta Energy VER

Alberta Bakken Land: ? net acres *

VER signed a letter of intent to enter into a JV with another company that holds leasehold on 90,000 net acres in northern Montana prospective for Exshaw/Bakken light oil. *The deal has not closed yet and there is no information on the working interest they are seeking or how this transaction will be funded

The Alberta Basin Bakken is set to become the next emerging light oil resource play in Western Canada. The Cardium formation mania which gripped investors in early 2010 has subsided but the symptoms of a new mania are showing up on many companies with land holdings in Southern Alberta or Northern Montana. Since mid-2010, land prices have risen significantly from under $100/acres to over $1,700/acre for land sold in Southern Alberta back in September of 2010. Since April 2010, industry has invested over $180 million on Crown land in the Southern Alberta Bakken fairway.




The industry spent millions of dollars grabbing land and is now ramping up to spend millions more as multi-well programs are planned for 2011. Proving up the play will be extremely profitable to the companies that are positioned in the Alberta Bakken. As more and more well data gets released, the share price of these companies, some of which have increased many times over so far, stands to shoot higher.







This map is displayed as is by BeatingTheIndex.com, with no guarantees as to the accuracy of the data. For example, Compton Petroleum confirmed by email that their land lies south of the border, not in Southern Alberta. If you have a better map, please contact me and I will be glad to update this post with it. For now this should give you a pretty good idea on the play.



If the Alberta Bakken is proven to contain as much oil as Saskatchewan or the North Dakota Bakken play, it will be drilled like Swiss cheese generating billions of dollars in return to investors and triggering several mergers and acquisitions. Who are the companies positioned to benefit from this emerging play? Let's start with a list of companies operating in Southern Alberta with a focus on junior and intermediate producers:



Argosy Energy Inc. GSY

Alberta Bakken Land: 34.5 sections

Argosy believes their land base in the Claresholm area has multizone potential for targeting oil in the Banff, Exshaw/Bakken and Big Valley. With its recent bought deal financing, the company will get rid of its debt and become free to focus on the upcoming 2 HZ wells it plans on drilling during Q1 2011.



Blacksteel Energy Inc. BEY

Alberta Bakken Land: 4 net sections

The primary catalyst for BEY appears as though it will be drilling results from other operators as they plan to drill 1 vertical well in 2011 to prove up Bakken oil potential. It has 2,560 net acres in Del Bonita, Southern Alberta right along US Canadian Border. The two horizontal wells drilled by Antelope Lands Services (these wells belong to CPG) are located roughly 5.6 and 11.6 miles away from its holdings. ROSE's two vertical wells are located 2.5 miles away. BEY is pursuing potential partners and is seeking to increase its land position.



Bowood Energy Inc. BWD

Alberta Bakken Land: 183 sections

BWD entered into a strategic joint venture with Legacy Oil and Gas LEG. Through a combination of land equalization and drilling, LEG has the ability to earn 50 percent of Bowood's entire interest in the Alberta Bakken fairway lands. Legacy will drill two (2) horizontal test wells which will target the lower Banff, Exshaw/Bakken and Big Valley formations. The first test well will spud prior to March 31, 2011 and the second test well will be spud prior to August 31, 2011. One of the test wells will be located on the Blood Tribe Lands and the other will be located on the remaining non-Blood Lands.



Crescent Point Energy CPG

Alberta Bakken Land: 1,562 net sections

When it comes to Alberta Bakken acreage, CPG is the biggest holder of land in Southern Alberta with over 1,000,000 net acres. Positive results proving the play will have a significant impact on its valuation. No results have been released so far following 3 exploration wells drilled in the 2H of 2010. The company seems to be focused on acquiring additional acreage. CPG is planning to drill 14 net development and exploration wells for 2011.



DeeThree Exploration Ltd DTX

Alberta Bakken Land: 300 net sections

DeeThree has an expansive land base with over 300 sections of land surrounded by CPG's acreage. The company believes its Lethbridge property holds tremendous potential for shallow crude oil and natural gas as well as light crude oil from the Bakken/Exshaw formations. Any positive drill data released by CPG will be a major driver for the stock price. Following 2 vertical test wells targeting the Bakken/Exshaw fairway in Q4, 2010, DTX anticipates drilling six locations (four vertical, two horizontal) during the first half of 2011. These locations are designed to test multiple intervals within the play across the company's large acreage position. DTX is financially strong, has a great land base and no one to share the pie with. Proving its land base successfully will make it a prime takeover target as it is operating under the eyes of CPG.



EnCana Corporation ECAECA

Alberta Bakken Land: 1800+ sections

Encana has more than 1,800 sections in this play that are on fee land (i.e., Encana owns the mineral rights). The farm-out activity they have in place here has third parties paying for 100% of the drilling costs, while Encana earns a royalty (30% to 38%) from those wells. ECA gave Crescent Point Energy access to a 350,000-hectare swath (1,350 sections) along the Montana border for a three- to five-year period, and must drill one section of land to earn an interest in it. ECA has several farm-out arrangements in place, but has not released the details to these arrangements, as each of them is subject to confidentiality agreements.



Murphy Oil MUR

Alberta Bakken Land: 234 net sections

Murphy's 150,000 net acres package lies to the west of Bowood's Blood Tribe lands. The Company spud its first evaluation well in January of 2011. A second well has been licenses in the Del Bonita area along the Alberta/Montana border. In total 6 evaluation wells will be drilled in 2011.



Wild Stream Exploration Inc. WSX

Alberta Bakken Land: 50 net sections

WSX has approximately 31,750 net acres in its Red Coulee conventional oil area in Alberta Canada. Near term catalysts will be drilling results by other operators as the company has 15 net sections of land adjacent to Rosetta Resources's wells across the border.