‘Significant’ Willesden Green purchase drives Alberta’s final 2025 land sale

A significant purchase at Willesden Green (Duvernay) in Canada’s WCSB accounted for nearly 75 per cent of the total bonus paid at the December 17 land sale, the final one of 2025.

Key highlights are outlined below:

A – Wembley: Eight sections of land, which all included P&NG rights from below the base of the Nikanassin to the base of the Halfway, sold for an average unit price of $2,558/ha. The southern seven sections sold to Vital Energy Inc. for $3,343/ha, while the one northern section sold to Cougar Creek Land for $204/ha. Since 2021, the Charlie Lake formation has actively been drilled by Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd., Archer Exploration, Kelt Exploration Ltd., and Canadian Natural Resources Limited in the surrounding townships. The closest well, 102/01-22-071-08W6/00, produced at a rate of 867 bbl/d in the first calendar month of production.

B – Carrot Creek: Millennium Land purchased five sections of land for $1,086/ha, which included mostly P&NG rights from the surface to the base of the basement. In the last five years, the Duvernay has been the primary target being developed in the area. Teine Energy Ltd.’s closest 21 Duvernay wells have averaged 236 boe/d, with 482 bbl/mmcf in the first month of production.

C – Hayter: A total of 828 hectares sold for a total bonus of $1.13 million in the Hayter area. The P&NG rights mostly included surface to basement, but the northeast parcels included rights below the base of Viking to the base of the Mannville or basement. The main target, within the last five years, has been the Mannville Stack open hole multilaterals (Colony, Sparky, General Petroleum, Rex, Lloydminster, Cummings, Dina). Rockeast Energy Corporation’s Sparky 103/16-19-041-01W4/00 well, in the middle of the parcels, produced 250 bbl/d in the last month of calendar production.

D – Willesden Green: A large land grab, totalling 16,664 hectares of land sold for a total bonus of $38.64 million (average unit price of $1,389/ha). This area included the high unit price paid per hectare at this sale, $6,605/ha, which was bought by Millennium Land on 2,304 ha of the total 16,664 hectares. While the P&NG rights varied, most of the parcels included rights below the base of Rock Creek to the basement. Within the last five years the Duvernay formation has been actively being drilled by Paramount Resources Ltd. and Spartan Delta Corp. The 35 most recent Duvernay wells that were drilled, along the southeast trend of the posting, produced 826 mcf/d in the first calendar month, with 347 bbl/mmcf liquids. The liquids content on these newly acquired parcels is expected to decrease since the lands are in the higher maturity gas window, but that is yet to be confirmed until the wells have been drilled.

E – Ferrier: Soo Line Resources spent $2,652/ha on 256 hectares of P&NG rights below the base of Cardium to the base of Mannville. The Notikewin and Wilrich have seen strong results from the recent Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. wells drilled in the township west of the sale. Peyto’s best nearby Wilrich well, 100/14-02-041-11W5/00, produced 2,044 mcf/d in the first calendar month with 67 bbl/mmcf.

In the Dec. 17 land sale, the province sold 56,993.37 hectares of P&NG leases and licenses for $52.21 million. Additionally, there were 768 hectares of oilsands rights sold for $0.72 million. This brings the total cumulative bonus paid to date for the year in Alberta to $408.74 million.

This is the last land sale of 2025, with the next sale occurring Jan. 14, 2026.