A strong year for drilling in Western Canada should carry over well in to 2012, according to a report by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors.

There are currently 478active rigs west of Ontario for the week of Nov. 22, and the average should increase to 558 in the first quarter of the new year.

Of the current deployment, 330 rigs are working in Alberta, 90 in Saskatchewan, 38 in British Columbia and 20 in Manitoba. Overall utilization of the fleet sits at 59.6 per cent.

Association vice-president Nancy Malone says it’s been a pretty strong year across Western Canada, but Saskatchewan is doing particularly well.

There are 140 rigs stationed in the province right now — up from 110 units in the first three months of this year.

Malone says the third quarter of 2011 was the strongest on record for Saskatchewan’s drilling contractors.

That’s partly because work that was postponed by floods and wildfires in the spring finally got underway.

Malone says an ongoing shortage of skilled labour is still a major hurdle for the industry Throughout the west, natural gas drilling is still targeting liquid natural gas plays, on a pricing assumption of $4 per 1,000 cubic feet in the Alberta spot price, according to the forecast. The oil target figure is US$88.