Canadian Natural Resources Limited has amassed a huge resource play footprint, with approximately 1.6 million acres in the Montney and 320,000 acres in the Duvernay.

The company is now driving down drilling and completions costs in both plays, with a focus on improving its execution, said Robin Zabek, chief operating officer for exploration and production, at its Investor Day last week.

CNRL’s Montney acreage sits within a 400-kilometre band stretching from northeast B.C. into northwest Alberta, with the majority in liquids-rich gas or light oil windows, said Zabek. Montney thickness ranges from 200 to 300 metres across its acreage.

The company is developing three benches throughout its footprint, but it could develop up to four or five benches in some areas, he said.

“With ample infrastructure, over 3,000 locations with short payouts, we’ve got a deep inventory that we can choose to develop at a measured pace, drilling to fill our existing facilities, or we could expand facilities and accelerate development, should market conditions support it.”

CNRL has improved Montney performance considerably the last three years, Zabek said, with both drilling and completions unit costs down nine per cent, while it has been extending the lateral lengths of wells.

“On the drilling side, we’re drilling faster, decreasing costs by optimizing the placement of our wells within the zones with the highest porosity, which gives us the highest rate of penetration in the best reservoir.

 “On completions, we’ve increased productive time on our frack spreads, driving costs down. Our teams are doing this by close integration of our drilling, completions and exploration groups.”

CNRL is using data analytics and customized dashboards that give its teams the information they need in real time to make better decisions, he said.

The company is also seeing improvements in well productivity.

“With 2025, we’re on trend to be 40 per cent higher in first-year production than 2023. This means fewer wells to fill our facilities, keeping production up and costs down.”

Duvernay improvements

CNRL has also seen cost savings on the Kaybob Duvernay assets acquired from Chevron Canada in late 2024.

The company is currently producing around 60,000 boe/d from its 70 per cent operated interest in the play, with around half of that liquids. It has a defined inventory of 300 locations.

“Our lands are extremely concentrated in the very rich liquid-rich gas windows and the light oil window,” said Zabek.

“We have dedicated processing capacity in place, with both drilled-to-fill room and options in place to increase capacity.”

CNRL has seen a 20 per cent improvement in operating costs since acquiring the assets, he said. Operating costs were $7.60/boe in the third quarter this year, compared to $9.52/boe in the first quarter.

“By applying the lessons that we’ve learned in the Montney, our Duvernay cost metrics show very similar profiles.”

He added: “Like the Montney, we’re extending our well lengths. We’re lowering our cost per metre while we’re accessing the lower reservoir, driving our drilling costs down by five per cent year over year.

“We’re realizing even more significant savings of 17 per cent on completions by maximizing the efficiency of our fracking operations, again through real-time monitoring and analytics, but also optimizing our tonnage and reducing our water usage through advanced frack modelling and planning and design up-front before we ever touch the ground.”

CNRL has focused on identifying the best drilling locations, well design and execution to improve Duvernay productivity, he added.

“We’re looking at about a 10 per cent increase [in productivity] over a one-year period.”

The company has approximately 2.1 billion bbls of liquids and 27 tcf of gas reserves across its conventional assets, Zabek said. It has a 2P reserve life index of 35 years.

“There is no shortage of development opportunity, meaning our existing assets will continue to fuel value creation for many years. Our developments are repeatable and scalable, providing options for drill-to-fill, and expansion projects across all product types, and giving us the flexibility to very quickly respond to market conditions.

“By leveraging technology, we have a track record of unlocking additional development and creating new value across our assets. And our culture of continuous improvement means we are constantly driving to find new efficiencies and further improve execution.”