British Columbia · NTS / BCGS grid
BC NTS & BCGS Lookup
Enter a British Columbia well-style NTS location — like d-96-H/94-A-15— and get the exact quarter-unit outline and GPS coordinates. This is the grid BC's energy regulator uses to identify well sites and facilities everywhere outside the Peace River Block.
Worked example: d-96-H/94-A-15
An NTS well location reads from the smallest cell to the map sheet that contains it: quarter unit — unit — block, then a slash, then the 1:50,000 sheet. Take d-96-H/94-A-15, a location in the Peejay field of northeast BC:
- dQuarter unit d — The northeast quarter of the unit — a=SE, b=SW, c=NW, d=NE
- 96Unit 96 — One of 100 units in the block, 45″ of longitude × 30″ of latitude
- HBlock H — One of twelve 7.5′ × 5′ blocks (A–L) on the map sheet
- 94-A-15Sheet 94-A-15 — 1:50,000 sheet 15 in letter area A of primary quadrangle 94
That quarter unit centres near 56.914583, -120.565625. Well licences often add a leading identifier (like A- in A-1-J/93-P-8) — the lookup accepts those too and resolves the underlying grid cell.
How the NTS/BCGS grid nests
Unlike the Dominion Land Survey, which was staked on the ground, NTS is a pure latitude/longitude graticule — every cell is defined by degrees, minutes and seconds. The top three levels are the familiar NTS map sheets from federal topographic mapping; BC's petroleum grid subdivides them into blocks, units and quarter units:
- Primary quadrangle948° longitude × 4° latitude — The big NTS map numbers covering BC — 82, 83, 92, 93, 94, 102, 103, 104, 114
- Letter area94-A2° × 1° — Sixteen areas A–P, numbered serpentine starting at the southeast corner
- 1:50,000 sheet94-A-1530′ × 15′ — Sixteen sheets 1–16, serpentine from the southeast
- BlockH7.5′ × 5′ — Twelve blocks A–L in a 4 × 3 grid, serpentine from the southeast
- Unit9645″ × 30″ — 100 units in rows of ten; each row restarts its count at the east edge (not serpentine)
- Quarter unitd~350 m × ~460 m — a = southeast, b = southwest, c = northwest, d = northeast
Watch the numbering directions: letter areas, sheets and blocks all snake back and forth (serpentine) starting from the southeast, but the 100 units do not — each row of ten starts again at the east edge. Mixing those up is the most common way to end up a kilometre from the intended location. The related BCGS grid — the BC Geographic System behind the province's 1:20,000 map sheets — applies the same graticule idea, which is why the two names travel together. More detail in the BC NTS/BCGS guide.
Ideal graticule vs official corners
This lookup computes positions with exact graticule math as defined by BC's Petroleum and Natural Gas Grid Regulation (B.C. Reg. 536/2004). The BC Energy Regulator's official NAD83 grid corners were adjusted to survey control, so in parts of northeast BC they can differ from the ideal graticule by up to roughly 100 metres. Treat results as navigation and reference grade — not a legal survey.
When BC uses DLS instead
One corner of BC doesn't use NTS: the Peace River Block around Dawson Creek and Fort St. John was surveyed on the prairie-style Dominion Land Survey grid (ranges west of the 6th meridian). Locations there read quarter–section–township–range–meridian with W6 ranges — the same format as NE-14-48-1-W5 in Alberta — rather than well-style NTS ones. Use the DLS/LSD lookup for those. Not sure which system a location uses? DLS vs NTS explains the difference.
Headed to the wellsite?
The iPhone app computes NTS/BCGS locations entirely on-device, with offline base maps of British Columbia, current-location lookup and navigation handoff — built for lease roads with no cell coverage.
Get Land Description Lookup for iPhone