Exploratory advance booking of petroleum and natural gas rights is a tool used by industry to ensure an area of interest is not disposed of before exploration plans for deep drilling are ready to commence.
The Director of Petroleum Lands will entertain requests for exploratory advance bookings of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights, provided companies wishing to obtain this type of booking make written application and include the following information in the letter of request:
- a commitment to drill a well to a depth greater than 3000 metres;
- Well Authorization number of the commitment well;
- anticipated spud date;
- projected depth of the commitment well;
- names of objective zones expected to contain hydrocarbons and name of expected bottom hole formation;
- requested sale date;
- sketch plat showing location of requested lands;
- tenure type;
- description of lands and zones requested; and,
- full contact information.
Additionally, the company must meet the following conditions:
- written application must demonstrate the well being drilled will evaluate all zones requested;
- applicants must receive a Well Authorization for the commitment well from the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC);
- the commitment well must be located on the applicant's existing petroleum and natural gas tenure;
- the commitment well must be classified by the OGC as “exploratory wildcat”;
- the request must not exceed the number of gas spacing areas that would be earned under the terms of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Drilling Licence Regulation for drilling two wells to the authorized depth of the commitment well;
- the tenure type for an exploratory advance booking must be in the form of a permit or drilling licence;
- an exploratory advance booking in permit form will not exceed 100 units in size;
- the duration of an exploratory advance booking will be measured from the date industry is advised by the Advance Notice of a Competitive Offering to the date of the sale in which it will be offered;
- requests for exploratory advance booking will not be considered in Area 1,
subsection (a), as prescribed in Schedule 2 of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Drilling Licence Regulation, except where, in the opinion of the Director of Petroleum Lands, it is considered truly exploratory;
- the duration of an advance booking will be at the sole discretion of the Director of Petroleum Lands, a period up to 33 weeks, as the regular tender offering schedule facilitates;
- acceptance of requested lands beyond 10 kilometres of the commitment well will be at the discretion of the Director of Petroleum Lands; and,
- the Director of Petroleum Lands reserves the right to refuse or modify any application.
The Advance Notice of a Competitive Offering will be attached to each regular Notice of Public Tender for disposal of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights, published prior to the requested sale date. The Notice will describe the rights and indicate the date they will be offered for disposition.
For further information contact:
Executive Director
Oil & Gas Titles Branch
6th floor, 1810 Blanshard Street
Victoria, BC V8W 9N3
Telephone: 250-952-0335
Facsimile: 250-952-0331
Email: Laurel.Nash@gov.bc.ca
Patrick O’Rourke
Assistant Deputy Minister
Titles and Offshore Division
March 18, 2008
