British Columbia seeks more oil industry interest

COMMENT: Signalling at least part of the new energy plan - intensified policies and programs to expand exploration on land, and more government stimulus to expand access infrastructure, roads and pipelines.

Reuters
02/02/07

HOUSTON - When it comes to oil and gas, British Columbia tends to get lost in the shadow of its prolific neighbor, Alberta, but officials want to change that, the Canadian province's energy minister said on Friday.

"There's huge opportunity in British Columbia," Richard Neufeld, minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources told a luncheon at the 2007 North American Prospect Expo in Houston.

Province officials had a booth and courted the 14,000 people attending this week's NAPE meeting, where governments and companies tout potential sites for exploration and production of oil, gas and other minerals.

Alberta dwarfs its western neighbor British Columbia in oil and gas production, but little exploration has been done outside northeastern B.C., where oil and gas have been produced for 50 years in a basin shared with Alberta, Neufeld said.

Geological work suggests promising sites for oil and gas exploration in the center, northwest and offshore of British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, but development is incomplete, even in the more developed areas of the northeast, he said.

Part of the problem is a lack of infrastructure, such as roads and pipelines, in much of the province, he said. Offshore, there's a moratorium on exploration for environmental reasons.

The government has begun offering to pay half the cost of building roads and pipelines to encourage development, and it has paid off, Neufeld said, noting drilling has doubled in the last five years.

The moratorium on offshore exploration and development is a political issue at both the province and federal levels that will take time to resolve, officials said.

Another problem with some of the interior is a layer of volcanic rock that makes seismic survey of the area's geology difficult, a problem similar to the salt layers that inhibit Gulf of Mexico exploration, officials said.

Still, estimates are that 8 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas await under the interior of British Columbia, and 10 billion barrels and 42 tcf of gas under offshore waters, Neufeld said.

"We as government believe we need the private sector to come in and do the work necessary and want to encourage them to do it," he said.

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