As natural gas prices have risen, drilling activity in the gas fields of northeastern B.C. has escalated by about 40 per cent since the late 1990s. It’s no surprise that Alberta companies are dominating the action.

Among Calgary-based heavyweights with a track record in the region, you’ll find many of the usual suspects, including EnCana Corporation, Apache Canada, Burlington Resources, Murphy Oil, Devon Canada and Hunt Energy.

But a few aggressive tiny-mites are also neck-deep in this exciting and high-risk game. They’re banking their futures on a quest for the Big Score in what scientists call the Upper Devonian Slave Point Formation. That’s where shrewd explorers spotted the Ladyfern gas field, about 100 kilometres north of Fort St. John, four winters ago.

Aspect Energy Ltd. of Calgary is one of the tiniest (four staffers, including founder-president John Nurkowski, M.Sc.). It may also be the most audacious.

A veteran geologist and dinosaur buff, Nurkowski spent 11 years at Canadian Hunter, learning the exploration ropes in the employ of another gutsy go-getter, the fabled geologist-cum-entrepreneur Jim Gray. In fact, Nurkowski’s strategic approach is reminiscent of that developed by Gray and his partner, John Masters, in Canadian Hunter’s formative years.

Shannon Oatway photo, Business Edge
Aspect Energy CEO John Nurkowski displays rock sample at his office.

Masters and Gray bought up scads of mineral rights in Alberta and B.C. before ultimately slugging a grand-slam with their discovery of the Elmworth Deep Basin, containing the largest known gas reserves in North America.

Obviously, Nurkowski, who operates exclusively in B.C., is keen to profit by their example.

He describes his company as “an exploration boutique,” that minimizes risk by collaborating with corporate majors familiar with the region.

“The lowest cost of getting into any gas play is acquiring land and the preliminary seismic data,” Nurkowski explained.

“From then on, everything becomes more expensive, as you shoot three-dimensional seismic data and you drill wells. And that’s where our partners come in.”

Nurkowski started Aspect Energy five years ago, at the urging of private investors who thought he had the right stuff to spearhead a unique venture.

His assignment: Sniff out the kind of high-impact gas that made Ladyfern a byword in the business.

Aspect’s business plan was geared to investigating a large area of marshy, muskeg terrain that Nurkowski believes is under-drilled.

“It’s almost a frontier basin, in an area with (ready access to) pipelines,” he enthused.

With an initial stake of $3 million, Aspect began by leasing a “library card” from ReQuest Seismic Surveys Ltd. That enabled Nurkowski and a contract geophysicist to browse data previously owned by Chevron and Shell Canada.

Then Aspect set out to pick up mineral rights. As we speak, Nurkowski controls 300,000 acres about 30 kilometres west of Ladyfern.

“We bought the seismic data and posted the land we wanted. Then, to manage our own risk, we looked for partners.”

And the partners have climbed aboard. So far, collaborators have underwritten the purchase of 11 pricey 3-D seismic programs and financed eight exploratory wells, at an average cost of $3 million-plus apiece.

Seven came up dry.

“It has taken us until the eighth well,” said Nurkowski, still brimming with confidence. “We feel this one has worked. We hope to be bringing gas on stream by the spring.”

While he readily concedes, “I’m no smarter than anyone else in the business,” Nurkowski’s certain his little team is on to something big.

“People say all the (easily recoverable) gas in Western Canada has been found. I know that’s not true,” he chortled.

But another Ladyfern? Sooner or later, it’s a definite possibility.

Originally touted as a humongous “elephant,” the Ladyfern field turned out to be something less. But it was still an important find that had a significant, if temporary, impact on North American gas markets.

And Nurkowski believes in the existence of untapped recoverable fields able to yield a respectable 400 billion cubic feet.

Meanwhile, he’s been pleasantly surprised by the ease of doing business in B.C.

In ’99, oilpatch naysayers warned him that aboriginal and regulatory issues would bog him down, that the provincial government was “not oil-industry friendly.”

They were wrong. Aspect has hired a consultant to assist with the more delicate issues. And though squishy muskeg restricts the company to winter drilling and “it does take us a little longer to get a well licence,” Nurkowski has enjoyed smooth sailing with provincial regulators.

“I’d rather be here than working in central Alberta, competing against 1,000 other companies,” he grinned.

“In B.C., there’s plenty of room for everybody.”