A Centre for Data and Research

The Core Facility, a large building complex located in Charlie Lake, is a research and educational facility. It serves the oil and gas industry, the geological community, academic institutions, and the general public. The building provides a central storage warehouse and research examination facility for

• core recovered from both oil and gas well drilling operations and from coalbed gas (CBG) cored wells, and
  
  
• drill cuttings collected from oil and gas well drilling.
  

Many groups benefit from access to cores and drill cuttings, including

• oil and gas exploration companies,
  
• academic institutions,
  
• the general public, and
  
• other natural-resource-oriented groups (such as hard rock mining and environmentalists).

The Core Facility contains a collection of over 6,500 cored wells and over 20,000 wells with drill cuttings, which represents an important historic and scientific information source. 

The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources (MEMPR) operates the facility, which is also called the Dave Johnson Building to honour the late Dave Johnson for his contributions during his years as a public servant to the oil and gas industry of British Columbia. The Core Facility is part of the Province's mandate, as outlined in the BC Energy Plan, to foster responsible oil and gas industry development. An important part of this plan is the Province's continued commitment to natural resource science.  

Visiting the Core Facility