Countess well’s rare reef play profile, shallow drilling could provide accelerated cash flow, says SNV’s Sara Akbar
CALGARY, Canada (July 3, 2025)—As cash flow potential goes, this Badlands agreement looks pretty good.
That’s the word from Sonoro Energy’s board chairwoman Sara Akbar on the farm-in agreement we signed in late 2024 with Badlands Resources Ltd. in southern Alberta.
Sonoro (TSX-V: SNV) expects to have all required approvals for the drilling of its Countess well, near Brooks, by the end of June, with drilling operations expected to begin in July or August.
As the operator of the Countess well, Sonoro holds a 100% working interest in the project. By drilling the Countess well, SNV will then earn a 100% participation interest in 3.5 sections of prospective leases currently held by Badlands Resources Ltd.
While our primary focus remains the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Sonoro signed this Western Canadian agreement because “this is a very unique play in southern Alberta. This is a reef play, which is really unheard of in Alberta,” says Ms. Akbar.
“It is shallow, (inexpensive) drilling. Very fast cash flow, and it is considered to be low risk from production and operation,” she said during an interview on a CEO.ca Inside the Boardroom segment.
Ms. Akbar’s comments on the Countess well begin at about the 8:50 mark of the interview.
Numerous promising geological structures have been carefully identified and mapped with hi-res 3D seismic data. Said formations lie at an approximate depth of 1,300 metres, and are known to produce high-quality oil in the region.
Several similar follow-up prospects have already been mapped on this acreage, reinforcing the strategic importance of this initial Countess test well.
Significantly, the area also has limited exploration activity, enhancing the potential for new discoveries.
“The beauty here is, if we drill the first (well)—low cost again, (because) it’s a shallow well—and you get this reef, there are plenty of other areas, potential reefs, that we have identified,” says Ms. Akbar, an internationally respected oil-and-gas field engineer.
Should Sonoro make a successful discovery, we plan to strategically expand our land holdings to include additional, similar and nearby anomalies—potentially enhancing production volumes across a larger land base.
“We know Canada is very competitive, you have many, many companies, but genuinely this stands out,” says Ms. Akbar.
“When we saw this reef play, we looked at this geologically, and saw the potential, that’s what attracted us to actually tap into this and (potentially) generate a fast cash flow for the company.”
See Ms. Akbar’s full interview with CEO.ca’s Inside the Boardroom.