Anadarko blazes new trail in northeastern B.C.

Completes transportation project under Buckinghorse River to develop 200 bcf of natural gas

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent

Anadarko has made a technological breakthrough in northeastern British Columbia by completing a transportation project under the Buckinghorse River to develop a potential 200 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Mike Bridges, president of Anadarko’s Canadian unit, said the project has demonstrated “how we can access areas that were previously considered uneconomic because they were too expensive or difficult to reach.”

The company drilled two horizontal wells to a depth of 4,600 feet, starting almost two miles apart on opposite sides of a 1,000 foot deep, steeply sloping and unstable river gorge.

Guided by data from a magnetic source on the two drilling assemblies, the wells intersected under the river.

Anadarko said the distance between the wells and the depth to which they were drilled make the project a first in North America.

It said a conventional pipeline crossing under or over the river would have posed significant technical and economic risk.

Drilling horizontally also reduced the size of the footprint on land because no pipeline right of way was needed.

The project is now delivering 9 million cubic feet per day of previously stranded gas and has capacity to carry 30 million. Anadarko holds 60,000 net acres in the area.