News

October 17, 2008

Canadian Resource Companies Set To Benefit From C$143 Million Geo-Mapping Project

By Christian Gradley

From the late 1400s until Roald Amundsen’s successful 1906 expedition, world powers competed to find the elusive Northwest Passage – hoping to reap the rewards of the quickest route to riches of the Orient. Many expeditions traversed the Canadian Arctic and most ended in disaster. As has been highlighted by Russia’s recent faux-deep sea flag planting, once again world powers are jockeying for position in the frigid waters of the Arctic. This time though, the fight will be over what lies beneath the waves. In a four year study released earlier this year, the United States Geological Survey pegged the Arctic’s oil and natural gas riches alone at 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. At today’s consumption levels, this equates to three years worth of oil and enough natural gas to rival Russia’s proven reserves.

Amid market turmoil, Natural Resources Canada confirmed on Friday that the Government of Canada will be going ahead to secure its share as planned with its energy and minerals geo-mapping programme. The programme, initiated earlier this year with C$34 million in funding, is set to receive an additional C$100 million.  As outlined in an Office of the Prime Minister press release, the programme will involve “an extensive series of field research projects,” wherein field workers and...