Alberta’s Duvernay enters the spotlight

Play could rival BC’s Horn River; Encana, Chevron among firms building a presence

BY ANY standards, the Devonian shale of northwestern Alberta is worthy of the growing attention it is receiving. It covers double the land area of British Columbia’s (BC) prolific Horn River basin, underlies 10 commercial plays, has pay zones that are 100-200 feet thick and has attracted government land-sale revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years. But the enormous untapped potential of the Duvernay, at depths of 6,000-12,000 feet, has lain dormant, while shallower opportunities elsewhere in the province have been exploited. And it could remain a sleeping giant for some time to come, while it awaits the release of a new regulatory framework from the Alberta En