MONTREAL – The Canadian oil and gas industry hopes efforts to be more transparent and new environmental studies on shale gas development will relieve public angst about the industry, executives attending a Quebec shale gas conference said Monday.
“There’s always going to be skeptics . . . but as more information comes out . . . it’s going to help to allay many concerns and fears,” said Junex Inc. president and CEO Peter Dorrins.
Dorrins, made the comment after speaking to a conference on extracting gas from shale formations through a method known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
He was referring to a recent study in New York state that found no significant environmental threats from shale gas development.
The U.S. Energy Department also has also concluded that the negative impacts on the environment are “remote.”
Outside the conference, a small group of protesters denounced shale gas.
Critics of fracking worry that pumping huge volumes of water, chemicals and sand under pressure into shale formations to free trapped gas will eventually create serious environmental concerns, including poisoning the drinking water of millions of people.
Such concerns have led to bans or moratoriums on fracking in several jurisdictions, including France, New York state and Quebec.
The industry contends fracking is safe and holds the promise of cheap and plentiful energy. Meanwhile, companies are increasingly listing the chemicals they use in fracking, something they had been reluctant to do in the past because of what they said were competitive reasons.
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For his part, Dorrins hopes exploration in Quebec will begin in three to four years assuming a provincial environmental assessment and legislation give the industry the green light.
“A great deal of wind was taken out of the sails but we’re still moving forward, a little more slowly and more cautiously,” he told reporters. “When more factual information is available for the public to consider, I think it will certainly help to fill the sails again.”
Kevin Heffernan of the Canadian Society of Unconventional Gas said the industry is trying to be transparent by listing chemicals used during the fracturing process and using less harmful substances.
“There really is widespread voluntary disclosure of what’s going in frac, it’s just not accepted or recognized,” he told the conference.
The Canadian industry is also adopting a set of principles and standards on shale gas development and hydraulic fracturing.
Those efforts will go a long way toward addressing some of the public’s apprehension as well, Heffernan added.
The industry has come a long way in five to six years, with shale now accounting for about 30 per cent of natural gas production in North America.
The United States remains far advanced but Canada has huge potential with new sources available in Quebec and the Maritimes in addition to active production in Western Canada.
Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard said the industry has to be patient while the provincial committee does its work.
“But it’s certainly premature to protest against anything because we have to see what the committee will propose to the government,” the head of the Quebec Oil and Gas Association said in an interview.
Earlier Monday, Junex announced engineering estimates showing that its Galt property in Quebec contains more than 260 million barrels of oil, about 15 per cent of which can be recovered using current technology.
The Quebec City-based company said the study by Texas-based oil consultants Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. estimated there are 260.2 million total barrels of oil in the Forillon formation on Junex’s Galt Field property.
The prospect is in the Gaspe Peninsula in eastern Quebec.
This 260.2 million barrel figure includes discovered deposits of 26.3 million barrels and undiscovered oil of 233.9 million barrels.
Junex said the consulting report estimated the company can expect to recover about 19.5 million barrels, based on a 15 per cent recovery rate.
Lavoie said new geochemical analysis has expanded the company’s previous estimates in mid-2010 by 40 per cent.
“These updated estimates represent an increase of about 40 per cent, further strengthening our resolve to advance in the project,” he said. “We have obtained a drilling permit for an exploration well that we intend to start drilling in the spring of 2012.”
Junex controls a 50 per cent working interest in the 6,700-hectare-sized Galt 1 property and it also controls a 100 per cent of the larger Galt 2 property surrounding the first permit.
Junex is a junior oil and gas explorer that holds rights on about two million hectares of land in the Appalachian basin in Quebec.
Besides its Gaspe oil properties, the company also operates in the heart of the Utica Shale gas discovery in the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
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