British Columbia: Come one, come all

The big and the little are joining British Columbia’s latest resource rush into the province’s northeastern shale gas region.

Imperial Oil, Canada’s largest all-purpose oil and gas company, disclosed in late April that it, in a joint partnership with sister company ExxonMobil Canada, has rounded up 115,000 contiguous acres of license holdings in the Horn River basin, about 40 miles northeast of Fort Nelson.

In an effort to rebuild depleting gas reserves, that saw its first-quarter gas production slide to 325 million cubic feet per day from 525 million cubic feet per day a year earlier following the premature end of one Alberta play, Imperial said drilling rigs are being lined up and the first exploration well is scheduled for the 2008-09 winter.

“We’re not concerned at all about being late to the game,” Chief Executive Officer Bruce March told reporters. “We’re very happy about the acreage we got and where it’s related.” At the other end of the pecking order, Calgary-based junior Result Energy is turning C$11.8 million from the sale of southwest Saskatchewan shallow gas assets to boost its Horn River holdings.

It so far has about 25,000 acres and hopes to add another 38,000 acres this year, with plans to drill two vertical wells in the first quarter of 2009 and conduct “some extensive 2-D seismic,” said Chief Executive Officer Bill Matheson.

He said Result is about 60 miles south of an EOG Resources discovery and 15 miles south of a recent Nexen announcement, both pointing to possible resources of 6 trillion cubic feet. But given the need for deep pockets to tackle the play, Matheson did not rule out adding a partner at some point.

The company said its Horn River lands are prospective for both the Middle Devonian shale gas play and the underlying Keg River platform gas play.

—Gary Park