Canadian Natural Resources plans 12% year-over-year production increase at midpoint
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Calgary, expects its 2025 operating capital budget of $6 billion (Can.) to deliver annual average production of 1.510-1.555 MMboe/d, a 12% increase over 2024 levels at the midpoint.
The growth includes the acquisition of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) and Duvernay assets from Chevron Corp. completed in 2024. Last year, Canadian Natural Resources agreed to acquire certain Alberta assets in a US$6.5-billion cash deal (OGJ Online, Oct. 7, 2024).
For 2025, Canadian Natural Resources is targeting a production mix of about 47% light crude oil, NGLs and Synthetic Crude Oil (SCO), 26% heavy crude oil, and 27% natural gas.
2025 operational targets
Canadian Natural Resources is progressing with its drill to fill development strategy across its conventional exploration and production assets it said. The operator plans to drill 361 net wells across its crude oil and liquids-rich natural gas assets.
The program includes 97 net light crude oil wells, primarily in the Montney, Dunvegan, and Mannville, as well as 82 net liquids-rich natural gas wells, primarily in the recently acquired Duvernay assets and in the company’s Montney assets.
Canadian Natural Resources plans to drill 174 heavy crude oil wells, of which 156 are multilateral wells primarily in the Mannville.
The thermal in situ drilling program is continuing.
At Kirby, the operator is targeting to drill a Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) pad in first-quarter 2025 and a second SAGD pad in the year’s fourth quarter, which are targeted to come on production in fourth-quarter 2025 and fourth-quarter 2026, respectively.
At Pike, the company is targeting to drill two SAGD pads in first-half 2025, which will be tied into the existing Jackfish infrastructure. The two pads are targeted to come on production in 2026 and keep the Jackfish plants at full capacity.
Additionally, the company plans to drill and bring on production 25 infill wells across its thermal in situ assets during the year, which access additional reservoir and bring forward reserves while effectively optimizing Steam to Oil ratios (SOR).
Canadian Natural continues to pursue opportunities to debottleneck and increase production at both Horizon and at the AOSP.
At Horizon, the operator completed the reliability enhancement project in 2024 which increases the capacity of the zero decline, high value SCO production at Horizon over a 2-year timeframe by shifting the planned turnarounds to once every 2 years from the previous annual cycle. As a result, 2025 will be the first year without a planned turnaround, resulting in high targeted utilization at Horizon.
It is also progressing its Naphtha Recovery Unit Tailings Treatment (NRUTT) project that targets incremental production of about 6,300 b/d of SCO following mechanical completion in third-quarter 2027.
At AOSP, a planned turnaround at the non-operated Scotford Upgrader is targeted for second-quarter 2025, when the upgrader will run at reduced rates for 73 days, impacting net annual average production by about 31,000 b/d.
Offshore Africa, the operator intends to send the Baobab floating production, storage and offloading vessel, which has been on-station for 20 years, to dry-dock for refurbishment.
Production from Baobab is expected to be suspended in late January 2025 and resume in second-quarter 2026, impacting 2025 net annual production by about 7,800 b/d, the company said.
