Northeastern B.C. towns see Montney natural gas drilling recovery
CALGARY — Increasingly empty industrial yards around the northeastern B.C. city of Fort St. John are a welcome sign for Jennifer Moore.
Moore, a regional economic development officer, says the return of parked natural gas drilling rigs and related equipment to the field shows that a recovery is underway for one of Canada’s biggest new energy plays.
Fort St. John sits atop the Montney, a natural gas-bearing formation that straddles the B.C.-Alberta border. Like the oilsands hub of Fort McMurray, its fortunes are closely tied to energy prices.
And with natural gas prices weakened by rising U.S. supplies, Fort St. John and neighbouring communities have witnessed a grinding two-year slowdown.