Note:  This summary of the Canadian Gas Potential Committee Report outlines
the basic downside analysis of the reserves that exist in the Alaskan Frontier
as well as the coalbed methane gas.  There will much discussion on this topic
over the next few months.  Anyone that wants a copy of the entire Canadian
Gas Potential Committee report should contact me at 402-398-7573 or go to 
the following web site:  www.canadiangaspotential.com  when our internet capability 
returns.  Lorna


Energy Insight News for Thursday, September 20, 2001:


Expectations fall for Canada's natural gas 'frontier'

Canada's arctic north may not be North America's next big natural
gas-producing basin after all. 

In what one geologist said was a "major, major" reduction in estimated
natural gas potential, the Canadian Gas Potential Committee-a volunteer
group of 50 geologists and other professionals who assess Canada's
undiscovered gas potential-last week reported that Canada's frontier basins,
which include the arctic and Mackenzie Delta regions, may hold no more than
60 to 65 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas that ultimately could make it to
market. 

The new estimate falls short of previous estimates that 300 to 400 tcf of
gas could be found in the Beaufort Basin, the arctic islands and Mackenzie
corridor. It was those estimates that helped encourage geologists, producers
and a number of U.S.-based power plant developers to consider the north as
almost a second Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). Gas from that
historically prolific yet now declining basin makes up around 15% of U.S.
imports. 

"We thought the gas was greener," said Rob Woronuk, a senior analyst with
the Canadian Gas Potential Committee. 

Still more potentially bad news came from the committee's report. 

In what Woronuk said was an "embarrassment," the committee has now decided
that Canadian coalbed methane may have less of a role to play than was
previously thought. 

The committee reversed the findings of its 1997 report that estimated
coalbed methane could account for up to 270 tcf of Canada's overall 570 tcf
natural gas resource. 

Read the entire story at http://www.energyinsight.com