STEADY BROOK There’s a lot of work do, but there’s equally as much potential.
That was the overall consensus coming from the Western Newfoundland Oil and Gas Internation Symposium as it came to a close Friday at Marble Mountain.
Keith Goulding, president of the Greater Corner Brook Board of Trade said the key is to work with junior explorers to jumpstart and demonstrate the potential of the region.
“If these (companies) can break though the science and get the finds well-documented, the medium-sized companies will come,” he said.
Throughout the sessions of the symposium, that ran from Sept. 12-14, a common theme arose that it is difficult recruiting mid-sized companies to work in the region.
It seems there is no middle processing group between junior explorers and much larger oil companies.
Keynote speaker Michael Enachescu, the chief geophysicist at MGM Energy, explained one of reasons mid-sized companies are not being attracted to the region is because the data is behind the times.
Organizations, such as the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, could modernize their database, digitize all the reports, and provide online access, he said.
“Disseminate (the data) to everyone — universities, other oil companies, the public,” he said.
It simply makes access easier, Enachescu said, at the closing keynote luncheon address on how to promote oil and gas exploration in the region.
Goulding agrees with him, saying the potential for development is there.
“Those larger companies will walk in,” Goulding said. “But they’re not going to walk in until there is more reason for them to be (here).”
