Land owners preparing court case, arguing ownership of a new kind of natural gas
By Brenda Kossowan - Red Deer Advocate - July 16, 2008
Land owners from across Alberta plan to sue the province over ownership of shallow gas.
United Landowners of Alberta disputes the province’s authority over coalbed methane found above the Lee Park shale formation, Bowden farmer Glenn Norman said on Tuesday.
The formation is an impermeable layer of rock that separates water aquifers, said Norman, a key member of the Pine Lake Surface Rights Action Group.
He has found information indicating that pockets of “biogenic” methane found above the Lee Park formation come from ongoing biological processes, not from coal.
Because of that, those gases should be considered a renewable resource — such as solar and wind — and therefore excluded from the province’s jurisdiction over mines and minerals, said Norman.
“We found out recently by looking at the science that the gas is biogenic,” he said.
Much of Norman’s information has been based on a paper filed with the Energy Resources Conservation Board, describing how biogenic gases form.
“It’s an ongoing process. It’s being created by one set of micro-organisms while it’s being consumed by others.”
That means the gas is not a mineral, and therefore does not fall under the province’s definition of mines and minerals, said Norman. Chemical tests can show how the gas was formed, he said.
But natural gas is natural gas, regardless of whether it was formed by biological action or by pressure and heat, said Sean Beardow, a spokesman for Alberta Energy.
Beardow said he cannot respond to a suit that has not yet been filed.
However, he said, there is no question that all natural gas falls within the provinces’ jurisdiction over mines and minerals, which includes all hydrocarbons, regardless of their origins.
“Whether it is biogenic or thermogenic, it is still considered as natural gas.”
Unlike solar energy or wind power, natural gas in any form takes eons to produce, said Beardow.
“Biogenic natural gas is not a renewable resource, similar to solar. I think that’s a very important distinction to draw,” said Beardow.
“It’s not like biogas that you see a lot of in Central Alberta, where people have manure digesters and make methane that way. This is not something that is done over weeks, months or even a few years. This is something that takes hundreds of thousands of years.”
Norman said his group has prepared an argument and is rounding up a team of lawyers to present its case. The United Landowners of Alberta plans to organize a series of public meetings, starting in Taber on Aug. 6.
A meeting for Central Alberta is in the works but has not yet been scheduled.
