Yvonne was puffing along triumphantly nearing the Chignecto coast as we ended the 2000k journey to VT. He seems to like sea level atmosphere.
Before leaving NB, I gave as a birthday gift enough carbon credits for a trip to Chicago by plane. It’s not exact or even entirely serious, but there’s something to burning carbon neutral waste cooking oil that changes the name of the game. I ducked out of the party early to make the dusty drive over Caledonia mountain where a public talk was taking place on oil and gas developments in NB. Some are concerned with the boom in unconventional gas, i.e. horizontal drilling and ‘hydro-fracking’.
Questioning myself for leaving an amazing display of tasty offerings and conversation, I drove by the wind farm, the forestry activities and the blueberry fields and the farming operations as I neared Elgin. Two exploration drill pads are setting up in Elgin and this brings the hydrocarbon exploration back to Albert County.
We have a history of the petro- resources exploration here abouts. It was lake albert that left the gypsum deposits and hyrdrocarbons in the late carboniferous, that fresh water marine environment responsible for the Albertite and the Stony Creek oil ‘play’. Much of the exploration was abandoned for the lack of feasibility. It’s only a matter of time before it makes sense to go for the small stuff. At some point we’ll reek of desperation in our pursuit of the stuff, and more and more the sense, given my haughty position, is that they, and I mean energy developers including ourselves, are going for broke.
My first stop upon returning to Albert County was an open house put on by Southwestern Energy, a utility turned exploration company who flew spectral photography and has started up geochem and 2d- seismic in a vast part of NB.
They were awarded licenses based on a successful bid for the province’s auction of exploration rights to the land. Don’t be confused, oil and gas has separate legislation than other mineral exploration, so mineral exploration isn’t inhibited. Nor is forestry. I went because I wanted to be informed, and there seemed to be some mystery around this. I don’t know if anyone else attended the open house, there wasn’t a soul outside of the organization while I was there for the hour and a half.
For example, the company has been advertising as SWN. Don’t bother Googling it. It’s the trade name on the stock exchange. Southwestern Energy should net some info. They’ve experience is in Arkansas, NE and I’m curious to learn more about that.
And why is the province so much facilitating the development of these resources? Are things on the table we rural residents aren’t being made aware of? I don’t feel concern is unjustified. For some including myself, the provincial regulatory context and relationships with local entities are problematic. It was interesting to see in the communities in VT, NH, and ME that I visited a comparatively extreme level of local control.
Oh, did you know, stateside, the abbreviated New Brunswick is NK? May be we should do the same with all the US firms going for broke. My petition to John, a SWN geo-analyst, was to set up office in Albert County. Keep it local!
