Definitions

1  (1)  In this regulation, "Act" means the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act.

(2)  For the purposes of the Act and this regulation:

"block" means an area described in section 5;

"Peace River Block" means that area of land described in Schedule 1;

"unit" means an area described in section 4.

 Application

2  The petroleum and natural gas grid is used to determine the location in British Columbia of petroleum and natural gas tenures under the Act, geothermal resource tenures under the Geothermal Resources Act and coal tenures under the Coal Act.

 Petroleum and natural gas grid

3  (1)  The petroleum and natural gas grid is defined by a set of universal transverse mercator map projection coordinates for the northeast corner of each unit, all as described in Schedule 3.

(2)  The petroleum and natural gas grid unit coordinates are based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83), a system of latitudes and longitudes defined by the positions of Provincial geodetic control monuments based on the international geocentric ellipsoid of revolution reference system titled Geodetic Reference System 1980.

(3)  Notwithstanding subsection (1), the defining of the petroleum and natural gas grid using universal transverse mercator map projection coordinates does not affect existing rights and recognized the historical petroleum and natural gas grid using the North American Datum of 1927 system of latitudes and longitudes.

 Units

4  A unit is an area defined by the coordinates given in Schedule 3 for its northeast corner and the coordinates of those units which have their northeast corners common to the northwest, southwest and southeast corners of the unit.

 Blocks

5  (1)  A block consists of 100 units.

(2)  Within a block, units are numbered from 1 to 100, from right to left, as follows:

(a) unit number 1 has its southeast corner nearest an even degree of latitude or an even multiple of 5 minutes therefrom and nearest an even degree of longitude or an even multiple of 7 minutes and 30 seconds therefrom referenced to NAD83, and with unit number 1 in the southeast corner of the block;

(b) unit number 10 is in the southwest corner of the block;

(c) unit number 91 is in the northeast corner of the block;

(d) unit number 100 is in the northwest corner of the block.

(3)  Blocks are identified by the letters A through L, with one letter assigned to each block, starting in the southeast corner of the group, and are identified from right to left, in 3 rows of 4 columns each, as A, B, C, D, H, G, F, E, I, J, K and L.

 Groups

6  (1)  A group consists of 12 blocks, identified by the letters A through L as described in section 5 (3).

(2)  Groups are named, for the purposes of identification only, in accordance with the nearest whole map sheet of the National Topographic Series system of mapping, using the 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude breakdown.

 Prescribed areas

7  For the purposes of section 58 (2) of the Act, the prescribed areas are set out in Schedule 2.

1  Peace River Block means that area of land in the Peace River Land District of British Columbia with corners having the following geographical values:

Northeast corner, latitude 56º40'57.77", longitude 120º00'04.64";

Southeast corner, latitude 55º38'08.88", longitude 120º00'04.86";

Southwest corner, latitude 55º37'15.50", longitude 121º56'07.71";

Northwest corner, latitude 56º40'01.35", longitude 121º59'18.46";

all referenced to the NAD83.

1  The petroleum and natural gas grid shall be issued and maintained by the Surveyor General Branch, Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, and is available for inspection at the Surveyor General Branch.

2  The petroleum and natural gas grid is described as follows: