Alberta’s Geological Survey fosters natural resource knowledge
Alberta’s earth sciences brain trust keeps no secrets
Knowledgeable energy and financial circles are liable to act on such hints. Shale gas, using drilling methods developed in Texas over two decades and lately transplanted to targets from Louisiana to northern British Columbia, has transformed the outlook for the cleanest fossil fuel.
Supplies were previously thought to be on their last legs across North America, with prices headed sky-high until a chain of about 50 proposed new coastal terminals could be built for tanker cargos of liquefied natural gas from overseas. But the import rush slowed and prices fell since U.S. shale output multiplied to about 6.5 billion cubic feet per day, or more than the supply additions promised by the proposed Alaska and Mackenzie Valley gas pipelines combined. After reversing course to convert itself into an export scheme from an import proposal, Calgary-based Kitimat LNG announced an agreement for Korea Gas Corp. to buy 40 per cent ownership of the plant and up to $20 billion worth of Canadian production over two decades.
B.C. took an early lead in the emerging trade by enacting a shale gas counterpart to Alberta’s light royalty regime for oil sands projects. But Alberta energy policy raises a possibility of future encouragement for new gas sources, and the province’s geology agency is blazing a trail to them.
“We’re not promotional. We’re the factual basis,” Beaton emphasizes. The AGS is refraining from echoing forecasts of astronomical shale gas potential that excite stock exchanges, preferring to concentrate on tracking down the most likely places for successful drilling.
The new exploration follows through on pioneer studies by the Geological Survey of Canada, Rokosh and Beaton say. The national agency mapped vast shale deposits as “source rock” where the remains of ancient algae and plankton cook into oil and gas.
From the shale, fossil fuels migrate out via underground fractures to collect in pools which are formed by deposits of sand or its compressed version, porous sandstone, and naturally sealed shut as traps by layers of denser rock. But the resource wealth’s cradle is tight and only a fraction escapes to wander into those targets of conventional drilling.
“We really don’t know a lot about shale as a reservoir. We’re just learning. It used to be just the stuff you drilled through to get to the sand,” Rokosh says. “We’re trying to identify the organic matter content – different types affect quantities of gas or oil deposits – and the physical rock characteristics.”
While refusing to guess at drilling target sizes, the scientists are after big game. “Alberta source rocks are very prospective. They’ve already provided lots of conventional oil and gas,” Rokosh says.
“We’ve got to find the sweet spots,” Beaton says. “We know where the shales are. We often know where the source rocks are. What we don’t know is what’s in them. That’s the new part.” Under Alberta’s open resource policy, the geology news will be revealed as soon as it’s discovered.
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