Canada ranks as the third-largest producer of natural gas in the world, behind only first-place Russia and the U.S. Currently, Canadian production stands at 17 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas per day, and totals some 6.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) per year. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers forecasts production will climb close to 7.5 Tcf annually by 2012, thanks at first to strong growth in coalbed-methane (CBM) production and later to gas from the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea regions in far northern Canada. To date, 146 Tcf has been produced from conventional gas reservoirs in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). According to Alberta's Energy & Utilities Board and Canada's National Energy Board, remaining resources in the WCSB total 381 Tcf: conventional reservoirs still contain 144 Tcf; CBM reservoirs hold 167 Tcf; and northern Canada, 70 Tcf. Proved reserves, in contrast, are currently 56 Tcf. Despite the strong emphasis on unconventional resources and Arctic gas in the future, the WCSB still yields some monster gas wells. The best Canadian natural gas well of 2005 was Shell's Tay River discovery in the foothills of central Alberta, according to a review by Calgary-based investment-banking firm FirstEnergy Capital Corp. The company issued the rankings based on the highest-producing gas zones brought onstream during the year. Shell drilled the Tay River well in 2-6-37-10-W5 to about 5,100 meters and encountered 140 meters of pay in the Devonian Leduc reef. The gas contained about 35% hydrogen sulfide, but the well was close to existing sour-gas-processing infrastructure. It was tied into sales in May 2005 and produced at a rate of 23 million cubic feet of gas per day for its first three months. The well was retubed in September, and afterward was producing raw gas at the rate of 90 million cubic feet per day. Shell estimated that the well discovered between 500 and 800 Bcf of gas. This year, the company plans a follow-up well and an exploration test on another structure in the same trend. Second place was taken by Devon Energy Corp. for its 16-34-66-8-W6 well in Wapiti Field, in the Deep Basin near Grand Prairie, Alberta. That well produced 15.78 million cubic feet of gas per day. No. 3 is Imperial Oil's Meikle Creek Field well in northeastern British Columbia. The well was brought onstream at the rate of 13.78 million cubic feet per day. Not surprisingly, FirstEnergy noted that the quality of the 2005 wells was less than of those drilled in previous years. In 2002 and 2003, wells with an initial rate below 10 million cubic feet per day had little chance of making the Top 25 list. In 2004 and 2005, however, the cut-off was at some 6.3 million per day. Also, the average initial potential of the top group of producers has fallen from 14 million per day in 2002 to 10 million in 2005. The increasing contribution of CBM wells is already being felt. FirstEnergy also compared operators on the basis of the number of gas zones and the volume of gas added each year. EnCana Corp., which emphasizes shallow-gas and CBM drilling, maintained its long-standing lead over all other Canadian operators in 2005 in both categories. The company brought 3,211 gas zones on production last year, and 746 million cubic feet of daily gas production. Cumulatively, the best 25 companies added 3 Bcf per day of gas production in 2005. ConocoPhillips, Canadian Natural Resources, Devon and Apache Corp. joined EnCana in the top tier of Canadian gas-finders. "There is plenty of gas- the problem is to find it efficiently," says FirstEnergy analyst Steven Paget. "With natural gas prices off the highs of the fourth quarter, while oil continues to hit record levels, this is the time to focus on natural gas stocks- companies that can find gas and bring production onstream." The king of all gas wells ever drilled in Canada is the Amoco (now part of BP) Blackstone discovery. The central Alberta well was brought onstream in 1988 at a rate of 134 million cubic feet per day. It produced 336 Bcf until October 2003, when it was shut in. (For more on E&P trends in Canada, see "Canadian Energy Investment Opportunities 2006," a supplement to this issue.)