Shale gas will be ‘revolutionary’ in Alberta, ERCB head says, Regulators retool for a coming wave of unconventional gas development by Jeff Lewis, November 21, 2011, Alberta Oil Magazine
Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) is quietly preparing for the arrival of large-scale shale gas development in the province, moving quickly to craft regulations specifically tailored to the extraction of unconventional resources ahead of an expected surge in activity. “We see this as more than evolutionary,” Dan McFadyen, the agency’s chairman, told an oil and gas environmental issues conference hosted by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers last week in Calgary…. Among the most notable changes made by the ERCB to date are provisions, finalized this fall, that remove subsurface well-density controls on coalbed methane and shale gas developments. …That approach has allowed producers to dramatically reduce costs…. [Emphasis added]