Using NAFTA, US Co. Sues Canada for Blocking Quebec Utica Drilling

Lone Pine Resources, a U.S.-based driller, has a huge amount of Canadian Utica Shale acreage in the province of Quebec. As we reported in 2012, they own 398,850 gross (240,320 net) acres of leases (see U.S. Driller Sitting on Big Canadian Utica Shale Reserve). The problem is, Quebec won't allow fracking. However, that is changing. In September the government published draft drilling regulations (see Quebec Government Publishes Draft Utica Fracking Regulations). There is an exception. Some (we're not sure how much) of Lone Pine's Utica acreage sits UNDER the mighty St. Lawrence River. In 2011 Quebec passed a law that even if fracking comes to other portions of the province, it will never be allowed under the river. So Lone Pine is using a tribunal that hears NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) cases, to ask for $103.6 million in compensation for being robbed of their asset by the Quebec government...

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