When attempting to analyze our industry, one of the major challenges is finding information on private companies. Without assessing and accounting for these key (and often deceptively large) players, it’s difficult to develop a truly comprehensive understanding of what is going on in the Canadian oil patch. To that end, we are preparing a series of articles intended to highlight the tools and capabilities provided by Petro Ninja and our new BOE Intel platform. Our first Private Company Review is centered on Teine Energy Ltd., a Calgary-based E&P player that is one of the largest privately held energy companies in Canada; production data from Petro Ninja indicates that the company achieved gross licensed production of 41,167 BOE/d in February 2023 (note that this figure is not necessarily representative of total corporate production).
Teine Energy currently owns a broad set of holdings concentrated in the Viking, the Bakken, Chauvin medium oil plays and the Duvernay. The bulk of their production has historically taken place in southwestern Saskatchewan, with the company highlighting approximately 9,000 BOE/d in production from the Bakken and 28,000 BOE/d in the Viking. With over 15 years of drilling experience in SW Saskatchewan, the company recently announced that they account for around one-third of all production in the Viking. The company has taken steps towards expanding their presence in other producing areas, however, and we’ve observed increased capital activity in the Duvernay and the Chauvin medium oil plays.
Figure 1: All Teine Energy Ltd. mineral rights
Repsol Asset Acquisition:
Teine Energy was involved in an estimated $400 million, 38,000 net hectare acquisition in which the company acquired assets from Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc. in September 2022. While details on this major deal were scant in the press, our analytical tools have given us a greatly enhanced picture of the components of this deal. We began to see these transfers materialize in our BOE Intel database in October 2022 and have seen a cumulative total of 2,661 wells, 280 facilities and 147 pipeline assets change hands. Crucially, this transaction saw Teine gain a significantly larger footprint in the Chauvin and South Chauvin fields in SE Alberta and SW Saskatchewan. These assets dovetail well with the company’s pre-existing assets in the region and are well-oriented with respect to Teine’s infrastructural networks. We’ve also seen that this acquisition has already bolstered the company’s production levels, with a number of their top 20 wells by recent oil production across all plays stemming from the Repsol transaction (Example UWI: 103160104302W400).
Figure 2: AER transfer entries for the 2022 Repsol-Teine transaction
Figure 3: Mineral rights transfers for the 2022 Repsol-Teine transaction
Drilling Activity:
Our data indicates that Teine Energy has spud 295 wells in the past year. These wells have targeted 6 different producing formations, although the Viking has been Teine’s favoured objective with 270 wells out of 295. This makes sense given the company’s strong track record in the region, but the new wells in other areas are perhaps more interesting. Teine spud 6 wells in the Chauvin South field in March 2023, hinting at what could be a 2023 capital program aimed at leveraging rights acquired from Repsol in September 2022. Teine also spud 5 wells in their Duvernay assets in the past year, two of which were spud since January 2023. These 5 wells account for almost a quarter of the company’s current wells in the Duvernay, which could suggest more drilling activity to come in the year ahead. Overall, the company appears to be gently shifting their focus from Viking towards other plays; while 91.5% of their wells spud in the past year were targeting Viking, this has declined to only 83.1% of wells spud in 2023.
Figure 4: Teine Energy wells spud in the past year
Teine in the Duvernay:
As mentioned previously, almost a quarter of the company’s current Duvernay wells were spud since January 1, 2023. It would not be surprising to see this investment continue to grow, however, as Teine Energy has over 300,000 acres in the light oil window of this producing formation. The company already produces around 1,000 BOE/d in this area, and this liquids-heavy asset base is likely to serve as a tempting opportunity with current trends in oil prices. At present, their second most productive well by recent oil production is a well spudded on June 12, 2022 in the company’s Duvernay asset pool (UWI: 100141005312W502).
Figure 5: Teine Energy’s Duvernay wells (in black) and mineral rights (in yellow)
Teine’s Montney/Charlie Lake Mystery:
While almost all of Teine’s assets tie neatly back to their major Viking, Bakken, Duvernay, and Chauvin medium oil holdings, a handful of current assets are outliers. The company owns a sprinkling of assets north of Grande Prairie that don’t seem to tie in directly with the company’s overall strategy. With a handful of mineral rights including the Charlie Lake and Montney producing formations and exactly two wells (UWIs: 102143007706W600 and 103143007706W600), it’s not entirely clear what Teine has planned for its toehold here or if there is room to grow its land position for potential Charlie Lake or Montney exposure. Land sale data indicates that this area was acquired in October 2021, although the mineral rights were just transferred over to Teine in February 2023 after being previously held by a land broker. Whether this activity is exploratory or simply opportunistic will likely be revealed in time, but we would suggest keeping an eye on Teine Energy through 2023 and beyond.
Figure 6: Doe Creek/Charlie Lake wells and licenses (in black) and mineral rights (in yellow and blue)
All of this analysis was made possible with BOE Intel and Petro Ninja. Should you or your organization have any interest in seeing what else is possible with these tools, please feel free to contact us to get more information or to arrange a demo.