Free Republic

In the world of a constantly changing oil and gas environment, the Montney shale basin is the sleeping giant that holds the key to accelerating Canada’s shale oil and gas boom, but the real treasure within this giant is a tight liquids-rich zone (approximately 15-20 miles wide) that has big and small players alike narrowing their focus for the potential of a giant payout. A pervasive hydrocarbon system in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) in Alberta and British Columbia, the Montney is estimated to hold 2,200 trillion cubic feet of gas, almost 29 billion barrels of natural gas liquids...

It’s like watching the same train wreck — twice. Our politicians are starting to commit the same wasteful blunders, resulting in the same perverse consequences, as the Europeans have in pricing carbon dioxide emissions, ostensibly to fight climate change. The harbinger of many bad things to come for us is now happening in B.C. There, the provincial government is forcing the transfer of millions of tax dollars from cash-strapped schools, hospitals and other public institutions, by requiring them to buy carbon offsets. Money which then benefits hugely profitable energy companies like Encana. This is eerily reminiscent of what happened in...

Encana’s announcement on Wednesday of a proposed $5.4-billion investment by PetroChina in its shale gas operations confirms the soaring importance of a resource that 10 years ago was hardly on the commercial map. It also looks like a nice piece of timing, since it came before Encana’s revelation Thursday that slumping natural gas prices had continued to hit earnings in the fourth quarter, although this was hardly unexpected. The market liked the news of the Chinese investment much more than it disliked the earnings dip, and Encana shares put on 4.5% to close at $32.02. PetroChina shares, by contrast, fell...

Former CSIS strategist David Harris says a weekend explosion near the town of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. fits the description of terrorism, despite police statements to the contrary. Sometime overnight Saturday, someone detonated a large explosion next to the sour gas pipeline about 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border. The blast did not rupture the pipeline but blew a 1.8-metre crater in the ground, which was discovered by a hunter on Sunday. "How on earth anyone could declare this was not terrorism at this early stage is beyond me. Terrorism is associated with an attempt by threat or actual...