THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

TORONTO - Exxon Mobil Corp. thinks it may have a world-class natural gas find in the Horn River shale rock basin in British Columbia, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In a story posted on the newspaper's website Thursday, Tim Cejka, Exxon's head of global exploration, said the company has been bullish on shale-gas exploration since 2003.

Cejka said results from the first four wells lead the company to conclude that each well will produce between 16 million and 18 million cubic feet of gas a day.

"We are really interested in shale gas," Cejka told the newspaper.

Imperial Oil Ltd. (TSX:IMO) and its parent Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) were buyers in the June land rights sale, adding to their current holdings in Horn River.

Horn River has an estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the formation. Experts predict up to 20 per cent of it is recoverable.

Natural gas is extracted from the shale rock by either horizontal drilling or fracturing wells.

Shale gas production was long considered too expensive until new technologies were developed in recently years to tap into the hard-to-access resource at lower costs.

That, coupled with the maturing sources for conventional gas, has led to increased interest in newly discovered areas such as Horn River.

Calgary-based EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) discovered the Horn River natural gas play in 2003 and is believed to be the largest landholder in the area along with its partner, U.S. oil and gas giant Apache Corp. (NYSE:APA).