“Now,” he continued, “when we were first involved with Beaver River, we did the complete opposite, because we didn’t understand how shale [gas] was. So, typical sort of small company mentality, we said, ‘Look, we need to find the best result that will be most commercial.’ And so we thought we could just jump the whole learning curve … so we drilled a number of wells together with Transeuro … And some wells tested at two and three million [cubic feet] a day. Some tested at four or five million a day. And then we’ve had other wells that tested at less than half a million a day – and other wells that tested nothing. Now, because we didn’t do the rigour on the scientific side of things, we have no predictive model to say, ‘Okay, here’s why the four million a day well worked. Here’s why the less than a hundred thousand a day well didn’t work.’”

“We’ve had one well that’s been producing there for the last four or five years,” he added. “We can’t quite figure why that well does as well as it does.”

D’Silva suggests that the situation in the Liard Basin could be about to change in the next few years, but that may depend on a number of variables – ranging from natural gas prices, the rate of production in the nearby Horn River Basin, and the fate of the proposed West Coast export terminal at Kitimat, B.C.

Following the $48.1million in land sales in the Liard Basin in 2009, the land sales in June, 2010 totalled $110.4 million, a significant increase.

“Something’s happening there,” said D’Silva. “Some big lands sales sort of southeast of where we are. I understand that a couple companies up there have been shooting seismic, looking for wells, and that kind of thing.”

“There was some very expensive land sold within the Patry area and around it in 2009 [and] 2010,” said Adams, stating that one major energy company appears to be driving exploration in that area in what may be a Muskwa shale similar to that in the Horn River Basin.

“What happened in the Horn River the last two or three years could potentially happen in that Liard area, particularly in the Patry area,” he continued. “But now – I said that six months ago – but now I’m kind of wondering, because even in the Horn River there are some operators that are holding back a little bit because of natural gas prices.”

D’Silva agrees with Adams’ assessment of the obstacles facing Liard Basin development in terms of location, infrastructure, and low gas prices, but also suggests that any shale gas play in northeast B.C. has a significant advantage over his company’s area of operation in Quebec.

“Fort St. John is there,” said D’Silva. “Fort Nelson is there. The service sector is there, which is huge. Having a service sector there makes such a huge difference. I mean, in Quebec, for example, we’ve got to ship equipment all the way from Western Canada to Quebec, because there’s no service sector there. So, having a service sector is absolutely huge. The challenge for this thing is just given the transportation [and] processing charges put it at such a disadvantage to every other shale play.”

----

However, if low gas prices and distance to market are slowing activity in the Horn River Basin, it could still be years until production really begins in the Liard Basin.

“If the Horn River was really going, I think the Liard would too,” said Adams.

The game changer could be an export terminal at Kitimat that could make Liard Basin resources available to Asian markets.

“When things like Kitimat open up, I think that creates all kinds of opportunities,” said D’Silva.

--------------------------

And dont you think QEC will look for other places also?

Well, I just looked that there will be a presentation in Oslo the 19. of may:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=27ed33877e4cbef4f0b684b7b&id=f1483e6e0d