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(Postmedia News; June 15) - One of three companies planning a $4.5 billion LNG export terminal at Kitimat, B.C., announced June 14 an "outstanding" new shale gas discovery in the province's remote and largely unexplored Liard Basin. Apache's discovery is estimated to contain enough gas to justify doubling the size of the LNG terminal it is proposing with partners Encana and EOG Resources. The company is calling it the best and highest quality shale gas reservoir in North America.

Apache said the tests suggest it has 48 trillion cubic feet of marketable gas within its Liard Basin properties. By way of comparison, all companies active in the Horn River Basin, one of three other major B.C. shale gas basins, have marketable gas of 78 trillion cubic feet, giving one company alone a natural gas find two-thirds the size of the entire Horn Basin. One Liard well alone produced 21 million cubic feet of gas a day over a 30-day period, the company said.

"This is enormous," said Gordon Currie, senior oil and gas analyst at Salman Partners. Based on Apache's calculations, the Liard could provide enough gas to export "for many, many years to come," Currie said. Bill Mintz, director of public affairs at Apache, said the discovery provides enough gas to meet the needs of any future expansion at its proposed terminal. The Liard Basin is in northeastern B.C., west of Horn River basin. Most of the drilling is in the central part of the basin, 70 miles northwest of Fort Nelson.

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