Natural Gas Development in Southern Ontario
A natural gas developing
company from Calgary called
Mooncor has just made a new
discovery that will transform the
energy landscape of Southern
Ontario for the foreseeable
future.
After three years of
exploration
Mooncor
has
determined that there is a
significant amount of Natural Gas
trapped
within
the
Blue
Mountain Shale formation that
underlies much of the area north
of Toronto between Hwy 400
and Hwy 12. The most valuable deposits appear to be surrounding the town of
Newmarket. Newmarket has been ranked as one of the 10 best places to live in
Canada and is surrounded by some of the most fertile agricultural land in Canada. In
one weeks time Mooncor will be hosting a Townhall Debate to garner support to
begin large scale natural gas extraction. Some local farmers have already signed
lease agreements but the municipality holds the final say in determining if the
project will ultimately proceed or not. Mooncor estimates that it can easily extract 1
trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually from the area (about 1/10 the annual
production of the United States)
Town Hall Debate guidelines:
During the Town Hall debate Mooncor
and its representatives will be given 15
minutes to present their information to
the Municipal Council of Newmarket.
After the Council has heard the proposal
other local stakeholders will be given an
opportunity to voice their viewpoints to
council. Each stakeholder will be given
2 minutes to issue a prepared
statement. At the end of the formal
statements there will be an open
discussion period where council may
ask any questions to Mooncor or any of
the stakeholders before deliberating to make a final decision.
Stakeholder List:
Mooncor: President of the corporation, head geologist, production manager, senior
vice president of human resources
Newmarket City Council: Mayor, Economic Development Chair, Environment and
Sustainability Chair
First Nations Representatives: Chief of Chippewas of Geogina Island, Elder from
Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation
Farmers: Holland Marsh Vegetable Grower, Dairy Farmer, Horse Breeder
Environment Representatives: CONE representative, Artists Against Fracking (Yoko
Ono and Robert De Nero), Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority
Government Representatives: Environment Canada water quality expert, Geological
Survey of Canada hydrologist, Local MP and MPP
Local Residents: High School Science Teacher, Electrician, Truck Diver/heavy
equipment operator, Book Store owner, stay at home mom (family with 4 kids under
5)
Evaluation: Townhall speach = Communication (submit transcript), 1 page
summary of stakeholder views = Application, APA formatted annotated
bibliography
Stakeholder
Mooncor President of the corporation,
Mooncor head geologist,
Mooncor production manager
Mooncor senior vice president of human
resources
Newmarket Mayor
Newmarket Economic Development Chair
Newmarket Environment and Sustainability
Chair
Chief of Chippewas of Geogina Island
Elder from Mississaugas of Scugog Island First
Nation
Holland Marsh Vegetable Grower
Dairy Farmer
Horse Breeder
CONE representative
Artists Against Fracking - Yoko Ono and Robert
De Nero
Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority
Environment Canada water quality expert
Geological Survey of Canada hydrologist
Local MP
Local MPP
High School Science Teacher
University Professor
Name
Emily
James
Sam G.
Paris
Truck Diver/heavy equipment operator
Book Store/Coffee shop owner
Stay at home mom (family with 4 kids under 5)
Organic Grocery Store Owner
Oliver
Melissa
Tamara
Lia
Laura O.
Sam L.
Wafa
Vanessa
Laura M.
Leigh
Billi
Sloane
Thea
Alma and Cabot
Rebecca
Jack
Eric
Liam
Liam
Emma
Gillian
Alberta firm eyes Ontario's untapped
shale gas
A junior oil and gas company from Alberta has been quietly scooping
up land rights in southwestern Ontario, part of an audacious plan to
bring Alberta-style exploration to the birthplace of Canada's
petroleum industry.
By: Tyler Hamilton Energy and
Technology Columnist, Published on
Sat Mar 20 2010
A junior oil and gas company
from Alberta has been quietly
scooping up land rights in
southwestern Ontario, part of
an audacious plan to bring
Alberta-style exploration to the
birthplace of Canada's
petroleum industry.
Consider it a rebirth. Calgarybased Mooncor Oil & Gas Corp.
wants to develop a resource in
Ontario that has been largely
overlooked by its rivals:
shale gas.
As the rest of the industry
rushes to develop shale-gas projects in the prolific Marcellus shale
deposits of the U.S. northeast and the Utica shales of Quebec,
Mooncor is gaining a solid foothold in Ontario.
It has already locked up nearly 23,000 acres (9.30776 hecatres) of
land in Lambton and Kent counties and is preparing to spin off a
separate company called DRGN Resources that will focus its efforts
on both conventional and unconventional gas drilling.
"We're going to come in with more sophisticated rotary tool systems
and advanced logging tools to help us better quantify the resource,"
said Mooncor chief executive Darrell Brown, who is aiming to
consolidate the province's poorly financed "ma and pa" operators
that, in his view, have left good value in the ground.
It may sound like a risky strategy, but the potential payoff is real.
Tony Hamblin, a petroleum geologist with Natural Resources Canada,
said Ontario represents a ripe opportunity that has been largely
overlooked.
"The possibilities, geologically, are there," he said. "It just requires
that people delve a little deeper. Certainly, areas in Ontario have just
as much potential as any other."
He's referring to the Marcellus shale deposits that stretch from New
York State and Pennsylvania to West Virginia.
Advances in lower-cost drilling technologies have spurred exploration
activity and rekindled interest in so-called unconventional natural gas
reserves that, in previous decades, were deemed too expensive to tap.
The supply expected to come from the Marcellus zone appears so
certain that two of Canada's largest pipeline companies – Union Gas
Ltd. and TransCanada Corp. – are looking at importing shale gas
from the U.S. northeast into Ontario. They would do this, to the
dismay of Alberta, by reversing pipelines that currently carry
conventional natural gas from Canada's west into Ontario and
through to the U.S. market.
What about Ontario's own shale resources? "The question obviously
comes up," said Terry Carter, petroleum resources geologist with
Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources. For the most part, he said,
the province's shale potential has slipped under the industry's radar.
It's not that we're strangers to oil and gas. Ontario was home to North
America's first commercial oil well, which began producing in 1858.
For a brief period Lambton County was recognized as the heart of
Canada's petroleum industry.
Now dwarfed by western Canada, Ontario oil and gas wells still flow.
The province has 1,200 active oil wells and 1,400 active onshore and
offshore natural gas wells. But annual production of natural gas
peaked at 600 million cubic metres in the early 1980s and is now less
than half of that.
It's the same story for annual oil production, which is roughly a third
of what it peaked at in the 1980s. The decline has Carter and his
ministry colleagues looking seriously at shale gas, part of a broader
provincial mandate to attract investment and keep local jobs.
To assist exploration companies, the province recently released an
aerial survey of southwestern Ontario that maps out magnetic
variations in the upper crust. These variations flag certain geological
zones that lend themselves to oil and gas formation.
"We're just pointing out (to industry) that this is something you may
have missed," Carter said. And why is Ontario being missed? "People
go to where they know there's been success first. And there's been
huge success in the United States, so that attracts more exploration,"
he said.
"That's what's missing in Ontario. We have to prove it's productive."
Shale gas is called an unconventional natural gas because extracting it
isn't as easy as drilling a deep hole into a reservoir and simply
pumping its contents to the surface. Instead, the gas is trapped in
cracks, pores and organic material within a sedimentary rock called
shale, which is made mostly of clay minerals.
The resource may be widely dispersed, but getting at it is tricky. It
must often be coaxed out using a horizontal drilling technique that
hydraulically fractures the rock and causes the gas to flow toward a
vertical collection well. Flow rates tend to be low, but the wells
themselves can prove productive over several decades.
In the past hydraulic fracturing, called fracking in industry lingo, was
too expensive. But technological advances have changed the
economics of the process and led to a boom in shale-gas drilling.
Tony Hayward, chief executive of British petroleum giant BP, recently
called new techniques for shale-gas drilling a "complete game
changer" that will likely transform North America's energy outlook
for the next 100 years. In an era of carbon pricing, shale gas will also
be in hot demand – it emits half the greenhouse-gas emissions of coal
when burned.
In Ontario, geologists typically break down shale-gas deposits into
three major zones – the Kettle Point Formation known as Antrim
Shale; the Collingwood/Blue Mountain formations known as Utica
Shale and the northernmost limit of the Marcellus Shale that extends
up from Pennsylvania and New York State.
Carter said the Marcellus zone doesn't offer much in Ontario. "Almost
all of it is beneath Lake Erie," he said. "Kettle Point and Blue
Mountain would appear to have better potential."
Both have what Carter described as biogenic gas, created when
bacteria in fresh water come in contact with organic-rich bedrock.
The bacteria eat the organic material and produce methane. "The
natural gas is being produced in real time, just like in a landfill site,"
said Carter. It's this biogenic gas that lies within the Antrim shale in
Kent and Lambton counties and part of the Utica shale at Blue
Mountain, two areas where Mooncor plans to drill.
"We know there is gas there," said Carter, pointing to water well
records. After all, people who live in these areas are quite familiar
with the egg smell associated with their well water. "What we don't
know is if the gas is in sufficient quantity to be economic to recover. It
may end up being just enough gas to be a nuisance in water wells."
If there is sufficient quantity, Ontario might want to be careful about
what it wishes. The rush to develop the Marcellus Shale has led to
widespread concern about the hydraulic fracturing process and how
the use of toxic chemicals in that process could affect the local
watershed and make residents who rely on well water sick.
New York State has banned high-volume drilling of horizontal wells
until it can thoroughly study the concerns. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has also weighed in and could soon have more
industry oversight as a result of a congressional investigation of the
practice.
A green light from regulators, however, could unleash a wave of
shale-gas development in Ontario. Ultimately, that could help the
province rely less on fossil-fuel imports from other jurisdictions.
"It's not the panacea that's going to make Ontario energy selfsufficient," said Richard Cohen, vice-president of corporate
development at Mooncor.
"But it will certainly be nice to keep some of the money here in
Ontario instead of sending it out to Alberta."
A Dairy Farmer Shares Her Story About Fracking:
“What Have We Done?”
by Public Herald on October 30, 2012 · 9 Comments
Op-ed by Carol French for PublicHerald.org
Op-ed’s are not subject to our Creative Commons License.
Carol French stands on her dairy farm in Bradford County, Pa., with heirloom
tomatoes harvested from her garden. Once a lease-holder and supporter for
fracking, she turned against it after her neighbors began to experience problems
and her water became undrinkable. © J.B.Pribanic
Carol French, a conventional dairy farmer in
Bradford County, Pa., the county most heavily
impacted by shale gas extraction in the state, shares
her personal story with you. Her story is part of
Public Herald’s +Truth campaign for Triple Divide, a
documentary film about shale gas. Find out how you
can share Your Story .
In the early spring of 2006, a nice man was in the area,
promoting a chance to dream of better times for Bradford
County and its farmers. There was promise of jobs for
everyone and the farmer would generate money from signing
a lease, and if a gas well was drilled on the farmer’s property
he would become rich.
Two years passed with little activity. By now, the older leases
were about to expire, gas companies were beginning to drill,
and excitement was in the air. Here, the majority of farmers
signed early, receiving $5- $85/per acre. There was
this belief that the person with the gas well would become
the next “shaleionaires.” We later found out small acre
properties started signing leases at $2,500/ per acre.
A natural gas well pad in Bradford County, Pa., near the home of Carol French. ©
J.B.Pribanic
By the spring of 2009, there was uneasiness among some of
the farmers who had a gas well drilled on their property. The
local newspaper was reporting contamination found in water
wells, death occurring on a gas pad and the farmer was
facing the fact that he could lose his farm due to a lawsuit
based on the gas companies operation. For myself, I was
thinking that our lucky neighbor was going to become the
next Millionaire, because they had the gas well drilled on
them. Soon my mind changed. Those farmers were facing
penalties lodged against them, due to their land becoming
industrial use instead of agricultural use.
In December, 2010 to January 2011, three gas wells were
drilled near our farm. Farmers were seeking out lawyers for
advice, because of the gas company’s exploitation of the lease
agreement. Many were beginning to question, what have we
done? Farm land was getting ripped up like old material for a
patch work quilt. In the middle of 2011, five more gas wells
were drilled around our farm. Two of the gas wells were less
than 4,000 feet away.
My neighbor (Carolyn) and I attended a presentation by a
professor from Penn State University. He made a statement,
saying that we must sacrifice; it was our patriotic duty to
assure our Country would be independent from foreign oil.
I could not wrap my mind around what he was saying. Was
there legislation insuring that our natural resources would
stay in this country? What did he mean we would have to
sacrifice?
My water changed March 15, 2011. It now turns white, with a
green moss settling on top of sand. Then the water becomes
gelatin like.
Carol French holding water that she believes is contaminated due to hydraulic
fracturing, a.k.a. fracking. © J.B.Pribanic
My daughter became sick in October of that year with a
fever, weight loss (10 pounds in 7 days), and severe pains in
her abdomen. At the hospital they found her liver, spleen
and her right ovary were extremely enlarged. My daughter
moved out of the state.
Our neighbor living north of us had the same health issues
after her water changed in March of that year, except her
spleen burst three days after she went to the hospital.
We knew our daughter would have to leave Pennsylvania in
order to have a chance of a healthy, normal life. We don’t
drink the water or the milk from our cows now. We still have
to bathe in it. Our state agency refuses to test our water;
therefore the gas company will not provide water for our
cows and my family.
I now believe I understand what he meant by, “we are to
sacrifice.”
It is now October 3, 2012. Many that quit their previous job
to work for the gas-related companies are now unemployed.
We have become “prudent partners” with the gas company;
by signing a lease, we now are finding ourselves
responsible for their debts (Mechanic’s Liens).
A calf at the French’s dairy farm in Bradford County, Pa. © J.B.Pribanic
There are for sale signs in the yard of a contaminated farm
that lost 80%-90% of its value, and could lose its milk
market. Who will buy his cows? On our farm, we and our
cows have rashes on our bodies. I wonder constantly if the
milk contains the chemicals that may be in my water, but the
regulators don’t test for it.
So many living in our county have “changed” water, and are
depending on water being provided to them by the gas
company. The gas companies chose not to pay for the water
at one point, then the water stopped coming [i.e. gas
companies stopped delivering bottled water or water
buffalos]. Others have been provided filtration
systems, increasing their electric bill and additional cost for
filters. The filtration systems don’t seem to have the
capability to filter out all of the chemicals migrating into the
water sources. In addition to these problems, we have seen
trees die, due to the frack water – or “produced water” – and
hydro chloric acid spills in Franklin Township.
I wonder, “How safe is our food that is produced or grown in
what was once a pure agricultural land, and is now becoming
an industrial waste land surrounded by slick water
hydrofracking?” Carolyn [neighbor] and I have asked this
question and were told to be quiet.
Will these private gas companies produce natural gas for this
country, or produce it for overseas, selling it to the highest
bidder? This would crush the theory of ‘sacrifice for a
country independent from foreign oil.’
Our Local, State, and Federal government have made choices
based on conflicts of interest. Many of the attorneys we seek
advice from had a conflict of interest as well. For example: If
the landowner could not afford the attorney’s fee, the
attorney would simply attach his name to the royalty
interest for payment. Landowners that are considering
making deals with the gas companies must seek the truth,
must know where to look. Carolyn and I found truth through
researching the records in the court house and our state
regulatory agencies (Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection).
We also encourage people to talk to landowners that have
gone through what they are considering.
We, the large land owners, mostly farmers, were given a
chance to dream, not knowing the true value of what lies so
far beneath our land; not aware of the type of operations that
would be conducted on our land. We believed in the
false promises made by that kind man, we now know as a
“landman.” Yes, there have been a few that have prospered
from the gas activity in our area. Some people are living in
denial, and for others it has become a nightmare.
Now we are finding ourselves asking the question, what have
we done?