Canada might have yet another oil province if Forest Oil’s big new shale gas find in the French-speaking province of Quebec proves world class and attracts still more players.

Denver-, Colorado based Forest said its Utica shale prospect in the St. Lawrence Lowlands between Montreal and Quebec City could hold four trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

In its next edition, Scandoil.com affiliate wrote that Shell had just applied for a shale gas license in the south of Sweden, adding to the possibilities had by horizontal drilling into the altnerate source of gas.

Two vertical pilot wells flow tested at 1 million cubic feet per day, and managers were pleased with shallowness of the find, the high-quality gas, access to nearby pipelines and “premium natural gas pricing to NYMEX”.

Forest plans to three horizontal wells in 2008 to ”refine its drilling and completion techniques”.

First production is expected in 2009 with the potential for a full scale drilling program in 2010 and beyond.

“I think you are going to see some extreme upside out of this play," company chief exec John Ridens told investors in New York.

Nearby, Talisman Energy and Oslo-listed Questerre have also recently contributed to making Quebec’s Lowlands a viable gas province with seismic, drilling and some production.

Tags: Forest Oil Corporation