Taqa acquires Canada gas lease

The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) has snapped up a position in Canada’s hottest gas development prospect, buying some of the last available government leases for the area.

The company has spent C$65 million (Dh205.5m) for the rights to produce gas from 10,000 hectares of land in a remote corner of British Columbia, the most western Canadian province. The land is located on a sparsely forested northern plain in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains that is believed to contain as much as 250 trillion cubic feet of gas trapped in shale beds. Of that, about 50 trillion cu ft is recoverable with current technology.

Taqa’s share of the Horn River prospect, which has sparked a land rush among North America’s top gas producers, could contain more than 1.2 trillion cu ft of recoverable gas – roughly a six-month supply for the whole of Canada, a country with a population of about 30 million people.