A spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources hopes the natural gas discovery near Sussex will encourage more exploration.

Darwin Curtis says he is excited to hear the gas pocket may be large but he says he's cautious about predicting what the payoff will be.

Corridor Resources has been test drilling on the Penobsquis site for a couple of months, trying to determine how much natural gas is there.

Norman Miller, the company's president, says the pocket may contain more than 300 billion cubic feet of gas.

The Director of the province's Energy Secretariat, Darwin Curtis, says a billion cubic feet of gas will heat 5,000 homes for a year. But, he adds, it's still too early to say if the well is economically viable. "I think there's some rows to hoe in proving it to be viable," he says.

If the well is tapped, Curtis says, the economic benefits could be great. Along with access to the fuel, the taxpayers would get a 10% royalty on any gas sold.

If the project succeeds, Curtis says, it could bring more drilling companies to New Brunswick. "The exploration business itself is a job creator and there's quite a substantial amount of investment in that alone," he says. "It also helps to bring a new industry to the area and helps to build that infrastructure that hasn't been here."

Curtis says the department knows there's gas down there. It's just a matter of finding out if it's worth drilling for it.