By the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission’s count, only 1.4% of an astronomical 3,337 Tcf of gas in five BC geological structures have made the jump from estimated resources to tapped reserves so far, even though provincial production doubled to about 5 Bcf/d since 2000.

Earth science calculations of the province’s “gas in place” natural endowment include 1,965 Tcf in the Montney formation, 848 Tcf in the Liard, 448 Tcf in the Horn River, 69 Tcf in the Cordova and 9 Tcf in the Deep Basin.

The total still shrinks drastically to 41 Tcf on the stricter reserves yardstick, which only counts sites currently penetrated by wells, connected to markets and producing economically: 29.8 Tcf of Montney, 0.09 Tcf of Liard, 10.8 Tcf of Horn River, 0.07 Tcf of Cordova and 0.43 Tcf of Deep Basin.

But forecasts for the portions of the BC gas endowment that will eventually turn out to be marketable add up to 532 Tcf: 271 Tcf of Montney, 167 Tcf of Liard, 78 Tcf of Horn River, 9 Tcf of Cordova and 7 Tcf of Deep Basin.