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British Columbia also commonly referred to by its initials B.C., is a province located on the west coast of Canada. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest, along with the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. Drilling for gas and oil in BC has centered on the Peace Country in the north east of the Province, around Fort Nelson (Greater Sierra oil field), Fort St. John (Pink Mountain, Ring Border) and Dawson Creek.
The Horn River Formation (also Horn River Shale) is a stratigraphic unit of Devonian (early Givetian to lateFrasnian) age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It is a thick sequence of marine sediments that was first described in outcrop on the banks of the Horn River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River, in the Northwest Territories (at the time District of Mackenzie) by Whittaker in 1922, and it takes its name from that river. In 1963 it was redefined in the subsurface of the Fort Nelson area of British Columbia. ] It is significant for its shale gas resources.
Shale gas is present in the siliceous shales of all three members of the Horn River Formation in northeastern British Columbia, and it is produced in theGreater Sierra oil field north of Fort Nelson. Horizontal drilling and fracturing techniques are used to extract the gas from the low permeability shales.[8] The original-gas-in-place volumes are estimated to be up to 500 Tcf,[9] making it the third largest North American natural gas accumulation discovered prior to 2010.[10] Companies involved in the extraction of natural gas from the Horn River Shale include EnCana, Apache, EOG, Stone Mountain Resources, Exxon,Quicksilver Resources, Nexen and Devon Energy.
Greater Sierra (also called Helmet Area) is a large oil and gas field in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. It is located east and north from the town of Fort Nelson, extending to the Alberta and Northwest Territories borders (150 and 130km respectively). Drilling activity takes place largely during the winter months, when the otherwise soft muskeg and boreal forest can be crossed on winter roads. Infrastructure is funded by a combination of private and public funds.[1] Major projects tap in the large gas reservoirs hosted in Mississippian and Devonian limestones such as the Jean Marie Member of the Redknife Formation.[2] Recent projects extract gas from the Muskwa Formation and Horn River Formation. Horizontal drilling and fracturing techniques are used to extract the gas from the low permeability shales.[3] Due to the large extent, the field is served by several airstrips (Helmet Airport, Fort Nelson/Mobil Sierra Airport, Fort Nelson Airport).
Companies with large interests in the area include Devon Energy, Encana Corporation, Canadian Natural Resources and Petro-Canada.
The Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) is a Crown Corporation of the province of British Columbia, Canada, established in 1998. Its mandate is to regulate oil and gas activities and pipelines in British Columbia. Their mandate does not extend to regulating consumer gas prices at the pump. The Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) was created and defined under the 1998 Oil and Gas Commission Act by and for the Canadian province of British Columbia.[4]
The OGC is a crown corporation acting as "an agent of the provincial government", where the Minister of Finance is its fiscal agent. It is headed by 3 directors. The deputy minister is a director and the chair of the OGC, and the Lieutenant Governor in Council may appoint 2 directors, for a term not longer than 5 years, one of whom is the commissioner and vice chair of the commission.[4]