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Page added on November 7, 2012
Alberta has huge shale oil, gas resources
* Duvernay, Montney, Muskwa among major formations
* Oil majors are amassing lands to unlock reserves
* Technology, economics will determine what gets produced
By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 6 (Reuters) – A new study has identified immense oil and gas resources in Alberta’s emerging shale prospects, suggesting a string of recent takeovers and land buys will yield impressive production gains for some of the world’s largest oil companies.
The Western Canadian province’s shale formations, including the Duvernay, Montney and Muskwa, could contain 3,324 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 58.6 billion barrels of gas liquids and 423.6 billion barrels of oil, according to the research, conducted by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board and Alberta Geological Survey.
The numbers show Alberta, already Canada’s largest oil and gas producing province, has huge potential even beyond its oil sands. They are currently seen as the world’s third-largest crude deposit with about 170 billion barrels of proven reserves and ultimate potential of as much as 1.7 trillion barrels.
The Duvernay and Montney have been the targets of a boom in energy deal-making, with companies such as Encana Corp, Chevron Corp and Talisman Energy Inc amassing land positions to unlock its liquids-rich reserves.
Last month, Exxon Mobil Corp agreed to buy Celtic Exploration for C$2.6 billion ($2.6 billion), locking up its reserves in both the Duvernay and Montney.
The companies have had success in accessing the previously tough-to-tap oil and reserves with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology that had been developed in large scale for use in shale gas formations in the United States and Canada.
According to the ERCB/AGS study, the Duvernay, a formation that cuts across much of north-central Alberta, contains 443 trillion cubic feet of total gas in place, 11.3 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 61.7 billion barrels of oil, at the midpoint of the estimates.
The Muskwa, located in Northwestern Alberta, has an estimated 419 trillion cubic feet of gas, 14.8 billion barrels of gas liquids and 115.1 billion barrels of oil.
The Montney, in Western Alberta, is also a major exploration area in neighboring British Columbia. On the Alberta side, natural gas resources are estimated at 2,211 trillion cubic feet, gas liquids at 28.9 billion barrels and oil at 136.3 billion barrels.
Others, including the Basal Banff/Exshaw, North Nordegg and Wilrich formations, have preliminary estimates.
The authors cautioned that the numbers represent “endowment of hydrocarbons” and that geological and engineering constraints as well as economic, social and environmental considerations will ultimately determine the volumes that will be recovered.
5 Comments on "Alberta has huge shale oil, gas resources"
BillT on Wed, 7th Nov 2012 3:28 am
And this means…? As I keep saying, EROEI and the financial collapse is going to keep all of those resources in the ground where they currently reside, forever. When the Age of Petroleum is over, there will still be billions of barrels of oil in the ground and trillions of c.f. of natural gas. And there it will stay.
There is more gold and other precious metals in sea water than has been mined in all of history, and there it will remain, for the same reasons. EROEI and Finances.
DC on Wed, 7th Nov 2012 5:06 am
Dont under-estimate the Alberta gov’t. Its unlike any in N.A. In effect, its the Nigera of North America. It is a gov’t for example, the actively suppresses and harrases the few scientists and doctors on behalf of Suncor and other oilcos. It suppresses all research into the effects of the tars sands on Athabasca river. Fraking is widespread and totally unregulated. Its a gov;t that wont even charge enough royalties to the tar-sanders to pay its own govt budget. Yet it subsidizes the tar-sanders with endless ‘incentives’.
In short, its a gov’t that would turn the entire province into this
http://understory.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/tarsands.jpg
regardless of whether or not it make economic or energitic sense to do so. Albertans are so fixated on the tar-sands, they even proposed at several points to explode nukes under-groud, and building nuclear power stations above ground to be used to heat the tar, instead of Nat-gas. Neither proposal went aynwhere of course, but that it was seriously considered at all, should give an indication how reckless Albertan oil govt really is.
Little factoid about Alberta. Some years ago, they fought a viscous campaign to make provincial resources off-limits to the federal govt. Well, they ‘won’, and then procedded to essentially scrap all royalties to the tar-sanders and other O+G types. What little they did manage to collect, has been pissed away to help offset running deficits.
Nope, those albertans will tar the entire provice outside Banff national park, and probably allow open pit mining there too if they thought they get away with it. None of will make sense or delver much net energy, but Albertans simply DO NOT CARE. They will break themselves and the land to prove it as well, like they are in Fort Mcmurray now.
Arthur on Wed, 7th Nov 2012 5:37 am
I think we are not going to see peakoil induced collapse anytime soon, not in North-America. Alberta might be changed in a wasteland but that price is going to be paid as nobody gives a ….
BillT on Wed, 7th Nov 2012 8:27 am
How about finance induced collapse Arthur? If the country cannot afford to buy it, it does not matter where it comes from. $4 gas brings the economy to a halt. What will $5, $6, $7, and up gas do? I think the word is ‘collapse’. I just read an interesting article about China and Canada. It is very possible that that oil is not intended for the US, it is intended for China one way or another. It may pass through the US, but not stay.
Arthur on Wed, 7th Nov 2012 4:45 pm
Bill, yes financial collapse is much more possible:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-06/it-doesnt-matter
Thanks for link to actioncjackson.
My point is, for a number of years to come the north American continent is not going to run out of oil and it is going to be extracted, even if the US will need to turn communist after a financial default and every American is a 100 amero per month government employee.