How long will the new natural gas shale plays be producing gas? 20 years? 40? More? This topic was discussed at IHS CERA conference last week in Houston. Some believe that they will be producing gas for a long time.

In contrast to the report by Nexen (see below), EnCana is quoted in a Globe and Mail article saying that the Horn River Shale is uneconomic with current gas prices.

Quoted from a Nexen press release: “Nexen continues to make significant progress on its substantial Horn River shale gas position in north-east British Columbia following the conclusion of a recent three-well drilling and completion program. With five shale gas wells now on-stream, we are producing between 15-20 mmcf/d with the majority of production coming from the three new wells. Substantial cost savings and productivity improvements were realized with this drilling and completion program. We took advantage of improved equipment utilization, drilled longer wells, initiated more fracs per well and maintained an industry-leading frac pace of 26 fracs in 15 days while achieving a 100% success rate on our frac program. Two of the wells were completed with eight fracs, while the third well was completed with ten fracs.”

An article at the Oil and Gas Journal reports that Apache Corporation is expecting to recover 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas from their Horn River Basin shale wells.

Here is an article in the Globe Investor that tells a story about how lumber workers and businesses in British Columbia are jumping to serve the natural gas business as drilling activity in the Horn River and Montney plays heats up.

British Columbia is attracting some gas shale interest as Result Energy acquires mineral rights in the Gunnell Creek area of the Horn River Basin. This is explained in an article in The Canadian Press.