Quebec Passes Bill for Oil, Gas Exploration

Quebec’s legislature passed a bill that will pave the way for more oil and gas exploration, providing a boost to drillers such as Junex Inc. while drawing criticism from environmental, aboriginal and citizen groups. The bill was passed by Quebec’s National Assembly early Saturday after an overnight debate ahead of the holiday break. The legislation is meant to implement Quebec’s clean energy plan but also contains provisions allowing for energy exploration, potentially including hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, Bloomberg reported. While Canada’s National Energy Board does not record Quebec as producing any marketable hydrocarbons of its own, the province holds enough gas to meet its own needs for about 100 years. Most is locked up in the Utica shale formation or in deposits beneath Anticosti Island, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.