As you know we are now being flooded with stories about shale gas – there seems to be several per day in various media in the province. There are more angry politicians and more calling for a moratorium on a weekly basis.
I come back to my first question on this. Why should NB be one of only a tiny handful of jurisdictions to stop the development of it shale gas industry? The vast majority of the regions with shale gas around the world are pursuing development. We are late in the game here – which should help us get the regulatory and oversight environment right (learning from early mistakes).
Anyway, I thought of this again when I read that El Paso is selling its what are termed “juicy shale gas assets” in this article. “The assets for sale, which include more than half a million acres of shale fields, may command a $7.3 billion price tag, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Deep-pocketed bidders from outside the U.S. are among the likely bidders, Dan Morrison, senior energy specialist at Global Hunter Securities LLC in Fort Worth, Texas, said in an interview yesterday.”
Remember, that is $7.3 billion for mostly undeveloped shale fields.
Shale gas is and will continue to be the primary source of new natural gas in North America. The only question is whether or not NB is going to develop its shale gas.