Our loyal BOE Report readers with a keen eye on our AER Transfers page will note an interesting transfer that was recently posted. An application has been filed with the AER to transfer 56 wells, 13 facilities and 21 pipelines from ARC Resources Ltd. to Storm Development Corp. Not much is known about Storm Development Corp., but it’s a good guess that it is a reincarnation of at least part of the old Storm Resources Ltd. team which sold to CNRL back in November of 2021. Management teams will often keep a part of the same name from company to company as old companies get sold and new companies get formed. There is a history between ARC and “Storm” companies as well, as way back in 2010 ARC Energy Trust acquired Storm Exploration Inc.
Thanks to BOE Intel, users will soon be able to map the affected locations of these transfers themselves with just a few clicks. Doing so gives us the following maps.
It should be noted that this would be the minimum amount of acreage changing hands, as any land without an ARC well, pipeline or facility on it would not be shown here. It might be a reasonable guess that more land is part of the deal as well given the ARC land position that we can see below.
If we pull up ARC Resources’ mineral rights on Petro Ninja and map any wells that the company has drilled since the beginning of 2018, we can see on the map below that ARC Resources has been exclusively focused on the BC side of the border and has not drilled any wells in the last 5 years on the land that is being transferred. These would definitely be non-core lands for ARC.
Previous iterations of “Storm” companies have been focused on the Montney, most recently with Storm Resources Ltd. predominantly in the Montney in NE BC. It appears that Storm Development Corp. may have its eyes set on the Montney as well, although this time on the Alberta side of the border, with these lands located directly north of Birchcliff’s Pouce Coupe development and near the Gordondale field.
A further look below at all the Montney wells drilled industry wide in the last 5 years show that there have not been too many Montney wells drilled that far north near the Alberta side of the border as the Deep Basin edge cuts in at some point. The furthest wells to the north on the map below are mostly licenced to Leucrotta Exploration Inc. (now Vermilion Energy). Perhaps Storm Development Corp. wants to prove, like Vermilion is doing, that the Montney play extends to the north, and is aiming to prove up some of these lands.
We don’t have lots of details yet, but we are excited to find out more about what this team is up to over the coming years.
If you are interested in learning more about BOE Intel, and how we are adding this mapping functionality to our AER licence transfer data, click here.