[6] "Hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells in unconventional shale, silt and tight sand reservoirs unlocks gas, oil and liquids production that until recently was not considered possible.

[9] The Spirit River, Cardium, Duvernay, Viking, Montney (AB and BC), and Horn River formations are stratigraphical units of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) which underlies 1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) of Western Canada and which contains one of the world's largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas.

"[13]: 8 [14] In 2011 the Wall Street Journal summarized the history of hydraulic fracturing,[4] "Only a decade ago Texas oil engineers hit upon the idea of combining two established technologies to release natural gas trapped in shale formations.

Producers then use a 60-year-old technique called hydraulic fracturing—in which water, sand and chemicals are injected into the well at high pressure—to loosen the shale and release gas (and increasingly, oil).

Then in the late 1980s, operators along the Texas Gulf Coast began completing thousands of oil wells by drilling horizontally in the Austin Chalk, and giving 'massive' hydraulic fracturing treatments to the wellbores.

[14] In the late 1990s in Texas, combining horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing techniques made large-scale commercial shale gas production possible.

[15] As shale gas companies target deeper, hotter, more unstable reservoirs, drilling technologies have been developed to tackle challenges in various environments.

- SC‐CO2 breakdown pressure is lower than L-CO2 - Difficult to get this low temperature - In this case depth and pressure also difficult to achieve - Almost 100% of propane gas is pumped back - Only 50% of hydraulic frack fluid remains underground - Potential risks to use in field work operation - Transport and storage is a challenge - Cheap operation - Simple implementation - Little pollution to formation - Has wide range of viscosity based on foam ratio - Less water usage - Reduces swelling but cannot eliminate it - Reduces water-locking - Highly increase well production - Decrease the volume of fracturing proppant - Lower sand plugging risks - High initial fluid rate - Prolonged plugging operations Oil producers spend US$12 million upfront to drill a well but it is so efficient and produces so well during its short, 18-month lifespan, that oil producers using this technology can still make a profit even with oil at $50 a barrel.

[37] Lifespan of hydraulic fracturing: The lifecycle of shale gas development can vary from a few years to decades and occurs in six major stages, as described by Natural Resources Canada (NRC), assuming all approvals from the various regulatory authorities have been obtained: Because of its vast oil and gas resources, Alberta is the busiest province in terms of hydraulic fracturing.

Even as the price of oil declined dramatically in 2014, hydraulic fracturing in so-called "sweet spots" such as the Cardium and Duvernay in Alberta, remained financially viable.

"[44] The Bakken shale oil and gas boom underway since 2009, driven by hydraulic fracturing technologies, has contributed to record growth, high employment rates and increase in population, in the province of Saskatchewan.

[50] In June 2011, the Quebec firm Pétrolia claimed to have discovered about 30 billion barrels (4.8 km3) of oil on Anticosti Island, which is the first time that significant reserves were found in the province.

[52][53] In 2012 the Parti Québécois government imposed a five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the region between Montreal and Quebec City, called the St. Lawrence Lowlands, with a population of about 2 million people.

[53] In February 2014, prior to announcing her provincial election campaign, former Premier of Quebec and former leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Pauline Marois, announced that the provincial government would help finance two exploratory shale gas operations as a prelude to hydraulic fracturing on the island, with the province pledging $115-million to finance drilling for two separate joint ventures in exchange for rights to 50% of the licences and 60% of any commercial profit.

[56] In November 2014 a report published by Quebec's advisory office of environmental hearings, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), found "shale gas development in the Montreal-to-Quebec City region wouldn’t be worthwhile."

BAPE warned of a "magnitude of potential impacts associated with shale gas industry in an area as populous and sensitive as the St. Lawrence Lowlands.

[62] The sharp seismicity increase observed in recent years in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is inferred to be triggered by hydraulic fracturing operations.

Most of the seismic events reported in this period are closely located to hydraulic fracturing wells completed in western Alberta and northeast British Columbia.

2 that requires mandatory implementation of a Traffic-Light Protocol (TLP) based on the local magnitude (ML) of seismic events detected during the monitored operations.

The BC Oil and Gas Commission implemented a similar TLP where the seismicity and surface ground motions must be adequately monitored during hydraulic fracturing operations, and must be suspended if a ML > 4 is detected within 3 km from the well.

ML > 4 has been chosen as a red-light threshold by both jurisdictions in western Canada (Alberta and British Columbia) as a seismic event with magnitude below 4 corresponds to a minor earthquake that may be lightly felt, but with no expected property damage.

The following table lists some amber or red-light TLP seismic events reported in the Horn River Basin in northeast BC, and in Fox Creek, Alberta.