Oil and Gas Industry

OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY is centred in the PEACE R country in the northeast corner of the province. The earliest commercial quantities of natural gas were produced at POUCE COUPE in 1948 and the first oil was discovered in 1955 at Boundary Lk on the Alberta border, north of the Peace R. These discoveries launched a period of intense development of oil and gas resources, with FORT ST JOHN as the service centre. By 1960 there were 68 oil wells and 200 gas wells in production and by 1980 oil and gas accounted for 27% of the total value of mineral production (see MINING). In 2004 the value of oil and gas production was $6.7 billion, about 60% of the total value of all mineral production. The government collected a record $1.8 billion in royalties and fees from the industry. Gas has always been more abundant in BC than oil. The province produces sufficient gas for its own consumption and exports to the US as well, while oil production meets only about 25% of provincial demand and must be supplemented by imports from Alberta. In 1996 the remaining reserves in the northeast were estimated to be 244 billion cubic m of gas and 21 million cubic m of oil. Extensive reserves may also exist beneath the ocean floor off the north coast of BC. These were estimated in 1998 by the Geological Survey of Canada to be 9.8 billion barrels of oil and 734 million cubic m of natural gas. From 1972 there was a moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration because of ENVIRONMENTAL concerns, but the Liberal government elected in 2001 revisited the issue of offshore exploration.

A network of PIPELINES carries natural gas from the producing fields in the northeast down through the centre of the province to the Lower Mainland, as well as out to PRINCE RUPERT (see WESTCOAST ENERGY INC). In Nov 2000 the 3,700-km Alliance Pipeline opened, carrying gas from northeast BC and northwest Alberta to Chicago and the eastern US. In 2018 approval was given for the construction of an export terminal at Kitimat for liquefied natural gas; the project included a new pipeline, the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, carrying gas from northeast BC to Kitimat. Oil is also transported south by pipeline to KAMLOOPS, where it links with the TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPE LINE COMPANY LTD from Edmonton, which has been supplying oil to VANCOUVER since 1953.