Daylight Energy Ltd. (DAY:TO) has invested $100 million to obtain rights to drill for Alberta Duvernay shale oil.

 All told, Daylight now has 52,000 net hectares in Duvernay rights, company president and chief executive Anthony Lambert said. According to Macquarie Equities Research, these rights are at Pembina and Kaybob.

The company will begin a four-well pilot project for Duvernay in the first quarter of 2012, with three of the wells located at Pembina and the other at Kaybob.

Macquarie has Daylight Energy at NEUTRAL and its target price at $9.75, after the company's 2Q11 results fell in line with its projections.

The company said it produced 36,814 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) during the fourth, fifth and six months of the year, down from 39,257 boe/d in the first quarter of the year.

According to Yahoo Finance, the company's 52-week high was $11.74, compared to its low over the same period of $8.40. It closed at $9.06 on Tuesday, August 3.

The Duvernay shale was the source of 1947's Leduc oil discovery and a number of ventures throughout the first half of this year have shown that it is liquids rich.