Calgary company explores shale gas in N.B.

An energy company has divested its interests in Alberta natural gas wells to explore shale gas developments in New Brunswick.

PetroWorth Resources Inc., a junior oil and gas exploration company, has already invested about $12 million exploring the shale gas deposit near Rosevale, outside Moncton, said president Neal Mednick.

He expects the Calgary-based company will spend another $4 millionto $5 million in the province over the next year.

'We are talking to a number of parties, including the government, to get a short pipeline system installed, to serve Moncton and communities around Moncton.' Neal Mednick, PetroWorth Resources Inc.

"We are talking to a number of parties, including the government, to get a short pipeline system installed, to serve Moncton and communities around Moncton," said Mednick.

Shale gas is natural gas drawn from reservoirs predominantly composed of shale, rather than more conventional sandstone or limestone reservoirs.

N.B. premier's father chairs board

Awell-known New Brunswicker, Alan Graham, the father of New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham, has been appointed chairman of the company's board of directors.

"He's a very prominent New Brunswicker, a man with great integrity, a man with a lot of connections," said Mednick.

But it's unlikely his connection with the premier will influence the company's dealings with the provincial government as it continues development, Mednick said. "The connect is nice, but it's very difficult to make use of something that blatant."

Graham served more than 31 years in public office before retiring from politics in 1998 as deputy premier and minister of natural resources and energy.

PetroWorth is focusing all of its exploration and development efforts in eastern Canada. It has secured 100 per cent of theworking intereststo about 400,000 hectares of land in the Maritimes, including 52,000hectares in New Brunswick, 155,000 hectares in Cape Breton and 180,000 hectares on Prince Edward Island.

To the immediate southwest of PetroWorth's land in New Brunswick is Stony Creek field, which has produced 800,000 barrels of oil and 28 billion cubic feet of natural gas to date, according to the company's website. To the immediate southwest is McCully field, which is estimated to have one trillion cubic feet of gas in place, the website says.