The immense Montney Formation in Western Canada is almost equally divided between the two provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. However, on either side of the provincial border there are stark differences in the number of wells drilled, well length, well productivity, and natural gas production. All these differences have resulted in Alberta being the much smaller player in the Montney gas story, with production from its side of the formation only helping to hold the line on Alberta’s total gas output in the past few years. Today, we continue our Montney analysis by looking at gas well trends on the Alberta side of this prolific formation.
For nearly 100 years, Alberta has been the leading source of Western Canada’s natural gas supplies. Previously supported for many decades by production from conventional shallow gas wells, the province’s gas output has been steadily pivoting away from the shallow wells since the early 2000s, and toward wells that tap unconventional, gas-rich formations such as the Montney. These wells, which employ horizontal drilling and multi-stage completions to unlock their immense productivity and reserves, have come to play a growing role in Alberta’s natural gas supply picture, and for Western Canada’s gas supplies in general.
In Part 1, we provided a brief primer on the Montney, the massive formation spanning parts of Alberta and British Columbia (BC) and which covers about 50,000 square miles (yellow bordered area Figure 1), or roughly about two-thirds the size of the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico. The Montney’s reserves as of 2019 were pegged at 576 Tcf, roughly split as 342 Tcf in BC and 224 Tcf in Alberta. The Montney’s gas production trend has seen its output rise from zero in 2005 to more than 7 Bcf/d as of February 2021, or just over 45% of total gas production in Western Canada in that month. We also noted that the Montney has been the sole source of the increases in Western Canadian gas supply since 2014.
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About the song
“Big Gun” was written by Malcolm Young, Angus Young, and Brian Johnson. Performed by AC/DC, it appears as the first track on the Last Action Hero: Music from the Original Motion Picture soundtrack album, released in June 1993. “Big Gun” was the first single from the LP, released in May 1993 to coincide with the movie’s release. The film starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is also in the video for the song, which features AC/DC performing the tune at a mock concert setting. (Interestingly, the band has never performed the song live in a concert setting since.) The Rick Rubin-produced single went to #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Personnel on the record were: Brian Johnson (lead vocals), Angus Young (lead guitar), Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Cliff Williams (bass, backing vocals), and Chris Slade (drums). "Big Gun" would later appear in the AC/DC boxset, Backtracks.
AC/DC is an Australian rock and roll band formed in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young. The band has released 17 studio albums, three live albums, two soundtrack albums, one EP, and 47 singles and has sold over 200 million records worldwide. They have won one Grammy Award. Twenty-one members have passed through the ranks of AC/DC since its formation. Bon Scott died in 1980 and Malcolm Young in 2017. The band continues to record and tour.
