The Montney Shale will be scrutinized to explore the links between earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing during this winter’s natural gas drilling season in northeastern British Columbia (BC).

AECO Dec 9

A 14-square-mile grid of 36 seismic tremor detectors will trace geological effects of the horizontal well completion method at a drilling hot spot known as Tower Lake, southeast of Fort St. John.

Calgary-based Symroc Business and Project Management Ltd. are setting up the “dense seismic monitoring array” for the BC Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).

The sensors would “provide NRCan and the commission with critical, high-fidelity data in an area that has exhibited previous induced seismic activity,” said the BCOGC. Rural landowners are...