In accordance with Sections 17 and 18 of The Oil and Gas Conservation Act, and Sections 37 to 39 of the The Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012, a licence must be obtained to drill a horizontal well in Saskatchewan through the Ministry of Energy and Resources.
In addition, a horizontal gas well is required to meet the spacing and target area requirements outlined by The Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012. Find instructions on how to determine oil and gas well spacing using Saskatchewan's Mining and Petroleum GeoAtlas.
A horizontal well licence is applied for through the Integrated Resource Information System (IRIS). Applications that may be associated to horizontal wells are also made through IRIS:
- An additional wellbore application is made if a company wishes to add a bore to an existing horizontal well that has released its rig.
- A spacing modification application must be made and authorized by the Ministry prior to a well licence submission if a company is proposing to not meet the required interwell setbacks on a proposed horizontal oil well, as outlined in Directive PNG006: Horizontal Oil Well Requirements.