Construction has commenced on ASX-listed production and exploration company, Whitebark Energy Ltd’s, 30 per cent owned Wizard Lake surface facilities in Canada.

The Wizard Lake development program encompasses the construction of a pipeline and installation of initial production facilities on a multi-well pad and the drilling of two new Wizard Lake wells in this calendar year.

Construction of the facilities – an access road and installation of pipelines – comprise the next stage of the Wizard Lake development that will bring the Rex-1 well into production and facilitate drilling of the Rex-2 and Rex-3 wells in mid-2019 and early 2020.

According to Whitebark, local weather conditions initially delayed the start date of the construction. Construction on the facilities is now expected to be complete by the end of May 2019, after which the Rex-1 oil discovery well will be immediately tied in and commence production.

The program is fully funded from existing cash reserves and the strategic placement to Grand Gulf Energy.

Wizard Lake Rex well

Following a 27-stage fracture stimulation program, the Wizard Lake Rex well was spud on 24 November 2018. Clean-up flows commenced shortly after on 24 December 2018.

Initial flow testing of the Wizard Lake Rex horizontal oil well recorded production rates of more than 300 barrels of oil per day prior to the completion of testing.

Following reconciliation of the hydrocarbons produced from the January 2019 flow test of its Wizard Lake Rex well, the total oil produced from the 16-day flow test has been increased from 1833 barrels of oil to 2845 barrels (a 55 per cent increase). This increase in total testing volumes would very likely mean that daily production, when the well is brought online, will be higher than in the initial forecast.

Image of the multi-well and facilities pad under construction, courtesy of Whitebark Energy.