Technological advances over the past 10 years have meant that it is finally economically viable to drill great distances horizontally, fracture the tightly packed shale rock and capture the gas. Shale gas production has rocketed in the US, with President Obama promoting the technology in overseas trade talks.

But the great new frontier could be the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, which is already a great source of oil and more conventional natural gas. In the past two years, energy companies have spent about CA$6bn (£3.9bn) on buying land there, much of it in the Triassic Montney and Devonian Horn River fields in northern British Columbia, where there are vast reservoirs of shale gas.

ExxonMobil and Shell are among the major oil companies ramping up operations, while China, Japan and Korean are among the Asian players who see western Canada as the future of their energy supplies. “The revolution in technology has allowed rocks that are known to have contained gas to be reached that weren’t reachable in the past,” says a leading oil and gas banker. “So the whole continent’s potential has increased and North America is going to become a net exporter of gas.”

Already the world’s third biggest natural gas producer, Canada will most likely lead the way in North American exports. It has huge ports and the potential to develop more on the west coast, making it perfect to export gas to energy-hungry Asia.

For example, Korea’s natural gas company, Kogas, sent a delegation to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories to evaluate the potential for an export facility on the Beaufort Sea. The chief executive, Kangsoo Choo, led the party, and will have noted that Kogas will need an icebreaker to crack through the frozen sea to reach the Bering Strait.

Note that the companies mentioned above are all big names. In a recent article, a Shell Canada Upstream geologist, Daniel John Kerridge Ross, wrote: “With increasing prices in Horn River, small companies are at a disadvantage, especially where large contiguous [neighbouring] blocks are posted.”

However, oil majors still like to minimise their risk, so a number of joint venture partnerships and stake sales have taken place in recently making western Canada one of energy’s deal-making hotspots.

An example is South Africa’s Sasol teaming up with the Calgary-based Talisman Energy to develop a plant in British Columbia potentially costing up to CA$10bn. The plant would turn 44 trillion cubic ft of shale gas to liquid. This follows on from Talisman selling 50 per cent stakes in its Farrell Creek and Cypress A assets To Sasol, deals that will eventually cost Sasol more than CA$2bn.

At a conference call with analysts last month, Sasol’s senior group executive, Lean Strauss, pointed out how welcoming the Canadian government had been: “We have been pleased with our engagement by local authorities. They have been extremely helpful … very positive about what GTL can bring to Canada.”

This is more than mere PR-speak. There is huge support for exploration and production in the wake of the Conservatives’ election victory in May, including the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia.

The political will to turn Canada into the world’s premier energy exporting country could ensure that shale gas becomes that game-changer.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

While the announcement is good news for the environment, provincial ratepayers will end up spending about $300 more per year on their electricity bills, according to The Globe and Mail.The move comes just months after Ontario unveiled a $7 billion renewable equipment supply deal with Samsung.

With this round, a few American energy companies emerged with significant deals, while others were shut out.

The Ontario Power Authority, which oversees the program, awarded contracts for 100 megawatts of solar and wind projects to a subsidiary of Invenergy LLC, a Chicago company.

Recurrent Energy, a distributed solar energy company in San Francisco, also won a deal to build several photovoltaic farms, with a combined capacity of 145 megawatts, over the next two years.
The province’s green energy rules require Recurrent, which has about 200 megawatts of solar projects on the books, to source 60 percent of its equipment in Ontario, and the company said in a release that the deal will yield 2,500 new jobs.

In an interview with Green Inc., Recurrent’s chief executive, Arno Harris, described Ontario as “a very friendly environment” for renewable energy investors.

But Nextera Energy Resources, the renewables division of the Florida Power & Light Company, is less bullish.

The company, which has installed 18,000 megawatts of renewable capacity at various sites and is the nation’s largest wind energy operator, has maintained an Ontario office for three years and was hoping to win 600 megawatts in renewable contracts.

The company came away with deals for 148 megawatts.

Nextera’s senior vice president, Mike O’Sullivan, said on Thursday that while Ontario had been aggressively touting its green energy plans, the jury is still out on whether the policies will yield results. “Talk is preceding the action,” he said.

Nextera operates wind farms in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, but these Canadian assets represent the extent of its non-American holdings.

Mr. O’Sullivan noted that Texas has 9,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity, while Ontario, with about half the population, has built just “a fraction” of that figure.

(The Ontario Power Authority reported that as of the fourth quarter last year, there was 1,178 megawatts of installed wind power in Ontario.)

Ontario’s Liberal government came to power vowing to phase out coal-powered generation in favor of renewables and new nuclear facilities. The province says it has invested over $15 billion in new generation projects since 2005.

America isn’t alone in seeking green energy; one of our neighbors is also spending significant money on green power. The Canadian government is set to spend about $6.7 billion to build renewable energy plants with Samsung. The Samsung Group will build equipment such as wind turbines and solar farms for the province of Ontario.

Reuters reports that Samsung will develop 600 megawatts of wind and solar farms in Ontario. In addition to providing green power, the new green energy initiatives are also expected to generate a significant number of new jobs in Canada. The Canadian government has a goal of creating 50,000 new jobs over the next three years and the Samsung green energy plans will generate 15,000 new jobs for the province.

Many lawmakers welcome the new green energy initiatives, but some ministers in the Canadian government don’t like the plan. Critics claim that the Canadian taxpayer will be footing the bill for what they say is nothing more than a Samsung subsidy. The Canadian government has agreed to pay Samsung above market rates for green power. Some ministers also claim that Samsung was given special treatment.