Woodside Energy Group, an Australian company, reported its Q4 yesterday, and contained within the report was a notable transaction in Canada. The transaction describes a joint venture in the Liard Basin in Canada with Paramount Resources, where Paramount will assume operatorship of a 50/50 joint venture in all Liard leases.
Source: Woodside Energy Group Fourth Quarter Report
See Woodside’s complete Q4 press release here.
BOE Intel subscribers have suspected for a few weeks that Paramount may have been up to something in the Liard Basin as this mineral rights transfer between Chevron and Paramount went through earlier in the month (Figure 1).
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Figure 1
While we don’t know the full extent of the leases involved in the JV, we can see the publicly held Crown mineral rights for both companies in the area, which we show below in Figure 2. Paramount in purple, Woodside in red. Technically these mineral rights appear to be in the Liard Basin and the Horn River Basin, so it’s unclear if both would be included in the JV. It’s also possible that there are lands held under broker that may not be shown publicly.
While the area is certainly geographically remote, some of the most prolific wells ever drilled in Canada have come from this region. It’s anyone’s guess if or when this acreage will get developed due to its location, but if it ever does there is some fantastic resource in the area.
Figure 2
We’re not sure who spotted this transaction first, but it was first drawn to our attention by @rockcreekfreak.