STELLARTON - The directors of East Coast Energy Inc. see opportunity beneath our feet.
An opportunity in the form of nearly 500 billion cubic feet of coal bed methane which the company plans to extract in the near future.
"We really believe in this project," president Julie Cohen said at the company's regional office in Stellarton.
East Coast Energy was formed earlier this year to pursue oil and gas exploration opportunities on the east coast and have 100 per cent interest in the Stellarton coal basin. That includes five wells they bought from Stealth Ventures, a company which previously drilled exploratory wells here. They also have their sights set on drilling another well in the Priestville area.
It's not a whim that brought the 24,000 acre Stellarton area to the company's attention. They have reams of data on the Foord seam and the gas it contains.
"We really liked this opportunity here in Stellarton," said Cohen. "It's one of the very thickest coal seams in North America. There's lots of potential."
Geologist Bob MacDonald, one of the directors, noted several factors which make this an attractive project. "It's close to the (Maritimes and Northeast) pipeline. It has local market potential, it's the most active industrial region in Nova Scotia and the demand for methane gas locally has increased."
Expect to see drilling activity taking place within months, said Cohen.
"We aim to drill this year."
The creation of jobs is often a question that pops up regarding local businesses. Cohen said they are looking to create employment opportunities in the province, including conducting a co-op program with students from Dalhousie University.
MacDonald added that he can see plenty of local sourcing for the project.
Energy company sees potential in local coal basin
- Published on April 29th, 2009
- Published on December 29th, 2009
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Ray Burns
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Comments
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- Don
- - January 18th, 2010 at 13:34:19
As a former Stellarton resident I would like to see the area benefit from the use of the methane gas as well. However, we have natural gas here, and you have to have a line running to every device that burns the gas, including all of the connectors running from the source through the midstream processors to the individual users. No small construction project.
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- arthur
- - January 18th, 2010 at 13:21:26
First and foremost this company should be promoting a plan to retrofit every municipal building in pictou county with methane based heating and cooling capability (including the soon to be sports/wellness centre). Drive down the road and see how successful this has been for Springhill. Second priority should be selling this to the Northeast pipeline Co. Let's ensure we are the primary beneficiaries of our home grown resources.
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- wayne
- - January 18th, 2010 at 13:10:44
NO new drilling should be done, unless pictou county gets access to it. It peeves me to see all that cheap gas go through our county to the usa AND WE DON;T HAVE ACCESS TO IT.
The big reason for it isthat they want us to keep paying the high costs of oil and if we have access to it, they;ll have to sell it to us for the sdame price as they sell it to the american markets and they don;t want that.... GO FREE TRADE GO!!! -
- shane
- - January 18th, 2010 at 12:55:12
drill away boys and give me a job while ur at it...get that coal and gas outta the ground and turn it into $$ for everyone...If only we could harness all the hot air commin outta NG we'd change the world.
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- jobless in Pictou
- - January 18th, 2010 at 11:40:59
Pictou Co is too small to be a viable place to sell this gas.It would cost a fortune to build the infrastucture needed to supply the gas to consumers in the county.It makes more sense to send it elswhere that is already set up to use this energy.The ppl. in Pictou co. would only complain about the cost after everyone was hooked up.They would figure it should be free since it,s coming from our part of the planet.
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- JW
- - January 18th, 2010 at 11:39:05
I think developments like this can be very useful to the county as long as we here in the county can benefit from the OUR OWN natural gas first before others do.
So much of Nova Scotia's natural resources are exported out of the province with very little being paid to Nova Scotia, or very little value being added to the product here in Nova Scotia. Its time we starting forcing companies and government to change the way our natural resources are exploited.
