Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
A Betts Drilling rig near Glen Ewen on June 21, 2026. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
One rig is in an area that hasn’t seen much drilling in a dog’s age. Maybe a cat’s age, too?
With the on-again/off-again Iran war once again on, what has been the impact on Saskatchewan drilling numbers?
There were 42 active or moving drilling rigs in Saskatchewan on Tuesday, July, 14, according to RiggerTalk.com. RiggerTalk publishes data compiled from the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC). Three were drilling for potash, one for hydrogen, and 38 for oil.
Notably, Saskatchewan’s 42 rigs accounted for just under a fifth of the 218 active rigs in Canada, coming in at 19.2 per cent of the fleet. That compares with four active or moving rigs in Manitoba, 13 in British Columbia, and 159 in Alberta.
In northwest Saskatchewan, there were 11 rigs working. Furthest north, Precision Drilling Rig 197 was drilling east of St. Walburg for Cenovus Energy. Seven more rigs were drilling for Cenovus. They included PD Rig 254 at Tangleflags, PD Rigs 151 and 150 west and north of Marie Hill, PD Rig 294 at Pikes Peak, PD Rig 198 and Akita Drilling Rig 8 west of Silver Lake Regional Park. On opposite sides of the North Saskatchewan River valley, PD Rig 195 was at Rush Lake and PD Rig 146 was southwest of Edam.
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Strathcona Resources had PD Rig 188 drilling east of Prince at its Meota East property.
North of Macklin along Highway 17 Savanna Drilling Corp. was drilling for Longshore.
Moving south to west central Saskatchewan, 9 rigs were making hole. Strathcona had Bonanza Rig 1 drilling west of Kelfield and PD Rig 297 at Plover. That’s a relatively new SAGD play the company has big plans for.
A cluster of three rigs were working west of Kerrobert. They included Savanna Rig 441 for Baytex, Ensign Drilling Rig 350 for Teine Energy, and PD Rig 288 for Whitecap Resources Inc.
Teine had Ensign Rig 351 drilling east of Coleville.
Edge Drilling Rig 6 was drilling for Ish Energy Ltd. southwest of Kindersley. Teine had Savanna Rig 626 at Totnes.
Saturn Oil & Gas employed Savanna Rig 425 east of Plato.
There were no rigs working in southwest Saskatchewan.
Typically central Saskatchewan wouldn’t rate its own segment, but it had three rigs going. Max Power drilling for hydrogen at Central Butte (near where it drilled its first discovery hole). Akita Drilling Rigs 35 and 14 were drilling within spitting distance of each other west of Lanigan, drilling for potash.
Note: there are typically several more rigs drilling continually for potash, at the Esterhazy and K+S Bethune mines. However, as these rigs typically do not show up on regular CAOEC reports, that’s why they’re not included.
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Nineteen rigs were working in southeast Saskatchewan.
South of Vibank, CanPacific was drilling for potash.
Switching back to oil, Allied Energy II Corp had Stampede Drilling Rig 22 south of Radville. Stampede Rig 8 was drilling for Saturn at Ratcliffe.
Saturn also had Stampede Rig 1 east of Corning and Horizon Drilling Rig 29 at Handsworth. Whitecap employed Panther Drilling rig 2 east of Corning.
South of Estevan, Stampede Rig 4 was drilling for Tundra Oil & Gas.
The typical Lampman cluster counted six rigs if you included the Willmar area. From west to east, they were Betts Rig 3 for Anova Resources due west of Lampman. Alliance Drilling Rig 3 was drilling for Hummingbird Energy south of Lampman. Whitecap had Stampede Rig 17 drilling just northeast of Lampman. Closer to Steelman, Stampede Rig 16 was making hole for Tundra. And southeast of Willmar, Ensign Rig 423 was drilling for Whitecap.
An area that hasn’t seen much drilling in a dog’s age, and maybe a cat’s age, too, is the Parkman area. But Betts Drilling Rig 1 was punching a hole for Pemoco Ltd.
Saturn was also drilling in a rather unusual area, with Stampede Rig 19 drilling north of Antler. Tundra had Ensign Rig 10 drilling working south of Maryfield within spitting distance of the Manitoba border.
Wrapping up in the extreme southeast, Betts Rig 4 was drilling for Villanova south of Oxbow. ROK Resources was drilling with Stampede Rig 7 south of Carnduff. And two miles from the US border, south of Carnduff, West Lake Energy Crop had Stampede Rig 3 drilling.
If you were counting, Precision Drilling had 11 rigs drilling or moving. Stampede had 10. Savanna and Ensign each clocked in five.
As for oil companies, Cenovus employed nine rigs. Saturn had five. Whitecap employed four.
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