Ed Barrett, new Chairman of the New Brunswick Business Council and Chairman of the Barrett Corporation in Woodstock says that if New Brunswick is to reach its goal of self-sufficiency, it needs to find a way to foster the growth of head offices (homebred entrepreneurs) here in the province.


Francis McGuire, Co-Chair of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force says we should concentrate on attracting pieces of major corporations to the province to bypass the pain and incubation of business start-ups.

The Barrett approach is to build business giants from within the province.


The McGuire approach is to create instant jobs in partnership with proven outside business enterprises.


Historically, New Brunswick’s most reliable businesses have been those created from within although many of our major employers have been non-resident. Stars of the within group include: McCain Foods, Irving, Ganong, Moosehead Breweries, Barbours and the Barrett group.


There are dozens of non-resident businesses who serve the province well but when a business is headquartered here, profits are more likely to be reinvested here, new jobs are created and old jobs are upgraded.

There’s an extraordinary story developing near Sussex, NB this week that may prove the dichotomy between Barrett and McGuire. On Thursday, Corridor Resources Inc. of Halifax began shipping natural gas to the United States from Sussex, New Brunswick through the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline.


The initial flow of 35 million cubic feet (mcf) a day is expected to grow to 45 mcf/day by November and is the first ever export of natural gas from an onshore site in Atlantic Canada.


It’s extraordinary because it’s a story of entrepreneurship at its best.

To our chagrin, the producer is not a resident of New Brunswick. To the best of my knowledge, there is no New Brunswick capital invested in this project and the only benefits that will accrue to the Province will be royalties and taxes generated by a few jobs and the purchase of local supplies.


One has to wonder where NB Power and others with an interest in the energy field have been hiding for the last ten years. Instead of shipping this gas directly to the United States, wouldn’t it make more sense to use the gas to produce electricity here in New Brunswick to power our forest industry or heat our homes?


Corridor was established by its three founding shareholders, Norm Miller, Paul Hopkins and Charles MacDonald in March 1995, initially as a numbered Alberta company. In August, the name was changed to Corridor Resources Inc. in recognition of the natural gas pipeline "corridor" (Maritimes & Northeast) that would be constructed through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and on to New England.


Corridor’s first gas exploration licenses were issued for the New Brunswick Sackville Basin, located near Moncton and within the pipeline corridor. The Basin was a logical place because it had a history of oil and gas production dating back to 1911. The scale was different then. Drilling and production technology was primitive. Annual production from 1911 to 1946 was equivalent to about 18 days of Corridor’s projected daily export from Sussex.

Corridor’s business strategy is to identify potential oil and gas fields within the Atlantic region, mainly onshore but also offshore and then to take an aggressive land ownership position.


Prospect lands are identified by accessing a large historic database of geological and drilling information, evaluating the data with new exploration technologies and preparing prospect plays to attract investment partners. The first of such agreements was concluded by Corridor with Shell Canada on November 28th, 1997.

In August 2000, Corridor Resources joined forces (a 50% interest) with the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PCS) to drill an exploration well (named McCully #1) northeast of Sussex. In late September, Corridor revealed that it had encountered natural gas in this first
exploratory well.


The well flowed gas at a rate of 750,000 cubic feet per day. In April 2001, Corridor posted results from a second McCully well with a flow rate of 2.2 million cubic feet per day. When analysis of its gas discovery was completed, Corridor declared it a potentially major find, possibly in excess of 300 billion cubic feet (bcf).

In September of 2002, Corridor entered into agreements with the Potash Corporation for the production, transportation, processing and marketing of natural gas from the McCully #1 and #2 wells for use at the potash plant also located near Sussex. Production began in April 2003 and has been flowing an average 2 million cubic feet of gas a day for the last four years.

Twenty one wells have now been drilled in the McCully field and all show natural gas. An independent assessment of Corridor’s gas field at December 31, 2006 by Calgary’s RPS Energy Group reported reserves (proven, probable and possible) of 281.6 billion cubic feet. Corridor estimates today that the field contains in excess of one trillion cubic feet of gas. That compares to estimates of 3 trillion cubic feet for the offshore Sable Island project.

As natural gas from New Brunswick begins to pump into the United States, Corridor will pay royalties to the Province, an estimated six to eight million dollars a year. Norm Miller and his partners in Corridor are to be congratulated.


However, in offering congrats, one has to wonder where New Brunswick‘s entrepreneurs are in this project. The cornerstone of New Brunswick’s self-sufficiency strategy is the export of energy.


The bulk of that energy will be generated from the burning and processing of imported fuels like liquefied natural gas and crude oil.


Surely there is a business case that would support greater at-home utilization of New Brunswick’s natural gas resources for such generation and in preference to imported fuels.


Corridor [ business profile ] has the potential to be one of Ed Barrett’s new giants.


Let’s encourage its development.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.