In 1973 John Masters co-founded a small Canadian exploration company, Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd. The company hired Bob Sneider and Larry Meckel of Houston-based consulting firm, Sneider and Meckel Associates, to explore the Alberta Basin with them. The company discovered the giant Elmworth Field in the deep part of the Basin. It is the largest gas accumulation in Canada. Elmworth is peculiar in that gas lies trapped downdip from water, although no impermeable barrier lies between. Prior to the discovery, there were 61 dry wells drilled into or through the Lower Cretaceous sands that are now gas productive. Good log evaluation of these by-passed pays in those old wells was the key to making the discovery. The Field now covers more than 100 townships in Alberta and British Columbia, contains over 7,000 gas wells, and has a proven reserve of greater than 20TCF (2016 data).