The Nechako Basin, Rich in Reserves... Totally Ignored!

Monday, October 31, 2005 04:02 AM

The Nechako Basin covers roughly an area from Williams Lake to Prince George, is located west of highway 97. and it is believed to be rich with fossil fuel reserves

"5 billion barrels of oil, 9.5 trillion feet of natural gas and I believe we will have to put something on the plate to get the oil companies to show interest at the Nechako basin at this time."

Those are the comments of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Richard Neufeld as he talks about trying to attract some drilling in this region to explore for these resources.

"We need to get a program of drilling underway" said Neufeld "because when the beetle kill problem takes hold, we need something to fall back on. We need to get that program underway now to pave the way for the future."

With that in mind, the Minister says "We in government have set aside a total of 25 million dollars hoping to partner up with someone in the oil patch to do some serious work. I know it sounds awfully bad to have to give an oil company a grant to drill for oil they will make money from, but that is the reality “.says Neufeld. The Minister adds "Last year in Alberta alone there were 16,000 wells drilled, this year that figure will hit 20,000, by contrast in BC we drilled 1500 last year so we have lots of room to grow."

The gas companies to this point see no reason to drill in this region, when they can drill for gas and oil in the north near proven reserves. "Frontier drilling" as they describe it, is just not in the cards when we are that busy.

The Geophysical survey of Canada says these are the estimates for this region for the gas and oil, which, until now has been difficult to drill for because it is covered with a layer of lava which makes the exploratory work much more difficult.

The oil companies say to start a drilling program in the Nechako basin is not in the cards when they are working flat out drilling 25,000 wells in Canada this year .

Neufeld on the other hand says we may have to offer some financial assistance to a Geo science company who could prove up the reserves and then sell that information to a gas company. At present howeve,r we will need to bribe them to get them here.

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Posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 04:02 AM in News by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Opatcho on October 31 2005 10:03 AM

Twenty five million for resource development sounds more like a gift for the oil barons. Wonder what happened to the off shore oil on the west coast. No takers there either. Maybe we could build a platform at tax payers expense.

Posted by: Chadermando on October 31 2005 4:26 PM

I am invested heavily in some oil exploration companies. I'll pass the word on, but they all seem to be busy, like the article says, with proven reserves.

One company I have 75,000 shares in (Portrush PSH.to) is drilling a deep well down 11,000 feet in Texas starting in a couple of weeks and I hope to make a 1000% return over the next month. they may be looking for new areas to drill and could be flush with money if the ground imaging is telling the truth.

Time Will Tell

Posted by: Palopu on October 31 2005 6:53 PM

Oil companys are the most predatory companys in the world. They do not miss any opportunitys to make money. If they thought there was big money to make in the Nechako Basin, they would be in there drilling. They are experts in their field.
All the worlds oil is controlled by about 5 major oil companys. They are drilling all over the world and in most oceans and seas. The story of the great oil potential in the Nechako Basin is more political hype, than actual fact.

The same thing applies to the container terminal in Prince Rupert. They will build a container terminal but it will never amount to much, as all the money will be spent in the lower mainland upgrading the 5 or 6 container terminals already located there. This type of release to the press, is a ploy by the Government to pretend to have an avid interest in the Central Interior. This is necessary to ensure that they can get elected in the next election. Don't believe to much of what you read in the Newspapers, as a lot of the information is planted by vested interest groups. The suggestion that Prince Rupert could be shipping up to 2 million containers a year by the year 2020 is B.S. The 5 or 6 container terminals in Vancouver presently ship 1.8 Million containers a year. This is done using two National Railways the CN and CP Rail.
Are we to believe that Prince Rupert will reach the levels now enjoyed by Vancouver within 15 years. Highly unlikely. 2 million containers would require 13 100 car trains carrying 200 containers in each direction per day 365 days per year. The cost of Rail cars, Diesel Engines, containers, infrastructure, etc would cost in the Billions of dollars. The projection of 2 million containers is to put it bluntly. B.S.

As a matter of interest a 100 car rail train is approx 1 mile long, therefore you would have 13 miles of containers leaving and 13 miles of containers arriving in Prince Rupert each day. Think about it, in order to handle this volume the Terminal would have to be as big as all 5 or 6 of the container terminals in Vancouver.