The Montney Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Lower Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in British Columbia and Alberta.

[3] The well was drilled 41 kilometers (25 mi) north of Fort St. John, immediately east of the Alaska Highway.

This estimate makes it one of the largest known gas resources in the world and equivalent to 145 years of Canada's 2012 consumption.

Shale gas extraction emerged in the late 2000s in the distal facies of the formation's western extent.

The Montney Formation reaches maximum thickness in the foothills of the northern Canadian Rockies at 280 meters (920 ft), and thins out towards the north up to the Fort Nelson area and towards the east to Peace River.