The Globe and Mail is reporting that in the Montney shale gas formation in B.C. and Alberta – seen as the crucial anchor of any future West Coast liquefied natural gas industry – some companies are still drilling and still making money.

It cites Painted Pony Petroleum Limited and ARC Resources Limited among them, claiming they have had strong results in their acreage in the B.C. region despite the current oil and gas industry doldrums.

It also quotes their executives as saying they’re generating returns even with gas selling this winter below a bargain-basement $3.00 per 1000 cubic feet.

The story goes on to say, with horizontal drilling and completion costs at $6.7 million a well – about six times that of a conventional vertical well – Painted Pony’s Montney operations north of Fort St. John still compete with any other in North America.

It says that’s happening because of how prolific the wells are and how comparatively low the day-to-day operating costs are.

The Montney, with its estimated 271 trillion cubic feet of marketable gas here on the B.C. side alone, represents the anchor supply for some of the multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas plants proposed for Canada’s West Coast.

Leading LNG proponent Petronas has been the most active driller in this region, and the state-owned Malaysian company is expected to make a final investment decision for its multibillion-dollar LNG complex later this year.

Although as recently reported, another delay in the federal review of its Pacific Northwest LNG project could be a new complicating factor in the timing of that decision.