Natural Resources committee  Certainly. The detection equipment we use is very, very cool. It's infrared cameras, effectively, so you can see plumes of methane emissions. You can readily detect any kinds of very small amounts of emissions and work them into your maintenance schedule. Yes, some really neat w

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I guess they would have some sort of—

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. I would say certainly in terms of what you measure, you manage. I would say it's certainly there, that aspect of measuring fugitives. Also, on the regulatory front, more and more attention has been paid to ensuring that, for example, the amount of gas th

Natural Resources committee  Certainly you would see the types of chemicals we use and the purpose. We're pumping large volumes of water and sand, principally, in fracturing operations. In doing so, you want to minimize the energy required to do that. So you put in, for example, trace amounts of chemicals th

Natural Resources committee  The short answer to that is yes. Disclosure is mandatory in both British Columbia and Alberta. British Columbia was brought in, in 2012, and Alberta was brought in, I believe, on January 1 of this year. So in all cases, the answer is yes.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. Certainly, public awareness of hydraulic fracturing operations has in part led to industry's commitment to disclose. The websites that enable us to disclose were pulled together, I would say, roughly about a year before the reporting was made mandatory. Industry adopt

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon. I'm Richard Dunn, vice-president of government relations for Encana. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and talk to you on what innovation means to the natural gas industry in Canada. As you know, this is a significant industry that accounts for some 500,000

Environment committee  Yes. Again looking at the Fort Nelson First Nation area, where we have the Horn River, certainly as we go forward to do our development, we consult extensively in terms of understanding first nations' concerns. If there are any sensitive areas that we need to avoid, for example,

Environment committee  That's a good question. While we hydraulically fracture the well, we produce the water back into a secure containment. That water is then recirculated and pumped back into that same reservoir in a slightly different location, an 800-metre-deep reservoir. So we dispose of the wa

Environment committee  Certainly I think all eleven companies were very supportive of the opportunity and recognized the advantages of effective planning. The single road, the single pipe that was mentioned a few minutes ago, or the need for that planning not just to deliver minimized land disturbance

Environment committee  There was, very much. I think they're very supportive of the producer group, and I would suggest that's the way they look at doing business with us now. For example, we have monthly meetings, oftentimes in the area, but oftentimes in Calgary as well, to which representatives of

Environment committee  It's definitely area-specific, but we're certainly investigating. It's not unique in any sense. For example, in the Dawson Creek area there's another large unconventional gas play called Montney. It's a very prolific play. We're currently looking at subsurface aquifers there as w

Environment committee  I appreciate the question. You bring up a good point in terms of doing the work responsibly. My opinion is that, yes, both resources can be developed in a responsible manner. Again, there are effective regulations that we operate under that ensure that the work is done responsi

Environment committee  Yes, we're used to regulations that address where water is used and the amount. For example, in British Columbia the Ministry of Environment, in their environmental assessment office, has thresholds of water extraction projects that are subject to environmental assessments. For

Environment committee  Definitely looking for alternatives is one of the strategies, but certainly there's also reuse and recycling, utilizing it in other areas to minimize the amount of fresh water we use. Shell, for example, has a very innovative project where they utilize waste water from the city