Taqa buys $65m Canadian gas land

by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Sunday, 05 July 2009

GAS LAND: The land cost $65m and is estimated to contain more than 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (Getty Images)

Taqa North, Abu Dhabi National Energy Co’s Canadian unit, has bought 10,000 hectares of land in Horn River, the country’s most prospective natural gas fields.

The land cost $65m and is estimated to contain more than 1.2 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

It is Taqa North's first purchase of land containing shale gas, according to a report in the Canadian daily the Globe and Mail.

Related: TAQA clashes with S&P over latest GRE ratings

Related: Taqa wins $1.2bn power plants deal in Morocco

Story continues below ↓

"Why do we want to get into the Horn River? It has great prospective for production and reserves," said Frederic Lesage, Taqa North's managing director.

"It's one of the best shale gas basins in North America, equivalent to the Haynesville [in Louisiana] or the Barnett [in Texas]. And it's just in our backyard. So why not?"

According to the paper, Horn River could produce more than 50 trillion cubic feet of gas. It has attracted $1.3bn in land purchases.

Others firms with significant Horn River positions include Devon Energy Corp, Apache Corp, EnCana Corp and Imperial Oil Ltd.