The Internet may make possible what decades of failed attempts at hi-tech information gathering have failed to deliver, says a member of a new oil industry technology sharing group.

Al Kiernan, a retired Alberta Energy Co. Ltd. executive who sits on the board of Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada, says the 'Net made PTAC possible.

"We think the 'Net and the computer age will make it easier to transmit information, he said yesterday during the introduction of PTAC at the National Petroleum Show.

"It allows engineers to communicate from different web sites."

PTAC was formed by some of the leading firms in the Canadian energy industry, including AEC, Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd. and Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., along with the University of Calgary and the Saskatchewan Research Council. PTAC will try to identify research projects needed to solve oil industry problems, while promoting industry participation in this research.

The group evolved form a local breakfast club of oil industry executives, which led to a conference last fall.

Kiernan says he hopes the initiative will help Calgary and Edmonton centres of technological expertise for the industry.

"We know the Western Sedimentary Basin is maturing, so we have to do something different if we want to live here and raise our families here," he said.

"We have the largest concentration of geologists and engineers in the world here, so there's no reason why Alberta can't become a world centre for petroleum research."

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