B.C. boosting natural gas production

CUTBANK RIDGE — The newest, most modern natural gas drilling rig on the planet is guided by a simple joystick being manipulated with surprising delicacy in the meaty paw of a guy whose hardhat bears the name Big Don.

Donny Carey is a linebacker-sized Newfoundlander who moved to Western Canada a decade ago to work in the oil exploration industry, roughnecking heavy equipment on drilling rigs seeking gas and oil in Alberta.

He graduated to drill operator five years ago — and just a week before The Vancouver Sun visited him at Precision Drilling rig number 521 located in the northeastern B.C. gas patch, he got his first feel of a machine that represents a new chapter in the history of natural gas exploration — here and around the world.

The new rigs are simpler and faster to operate than anything else in Western Canada — they can drill a hole in 26 days compared to 36 days for a standard rig operating in softer ground in Alberta.

Vancouver Sun