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Manitoba’s oil industry invested a record $400 million in oil exploration and production in 2006, shattering a well-drilling record set more than 50 years ago, Science, Technology, Energy and Mines Minister Jim Rondeau announced today.

 

A record 478 wells were drilled in 2006, a 74 per cent increase over the previous record of 354 set in 1955.

 

“It’s been a banner year for oil exploration and production, and 2007 is looking just as promising,” said Rondeau.  “The province’s new initiatives to attract the oil industry to Manitoba have renewed interest in our oil and gas prospects.”

 

Provincial initiatives to spur oil investment include:

·         a retail sales tax exemption for drilling and service rigs and other equipment used for oil and gas exploration, and

·         a change in the Manitoba Drilling Incentive Program to encourage investment in water-flood projects in which salt water is re-injected into oil pools to increase oil recovery.

 

The future also looks promising for Sinclair field, Manitoba’s newest and most significant oil field, said Rondeau.  Last year 304 wells were drilled in Sinclair.  The field now accounts for more than 30 per cent of the province’s total oil production. A new 18-kilometre pipeline now carries more than 7,500 barrels of crude oil per day from the Sinclair field to Cromer where it enters the Enbridge interprovincial pipeline system.

 

Since 1999, sparked by a steady increase in drilling, Manitoba’s oil production has doubled to over 20,000 barrels from 10,000 per day.

 

Investment by the oil industry in the province’s oil patch delivers significant revenue to the province, rural municipalities, land and mineral owners, Manitoba’s oil field service and supply sector, as well as local businesses in the southwest region of the province, the minister added.