Canada May Lift West Coast Oil and Gas Moratorium

By Greg Helten

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 27, 2004 (ENS) – Natural Resources Canada, a federal government department, is considering removal of a 34 year moratorium on oil and gas exploration and development off British Columbia’s northwest coast. But critics say the outcome of the public decision-making process is a foregone conclusion because the members of a federally appointed panel reviewing the moratorium are biased in favor of drilling.

The area that may hold an undetermined wealth of petroleum is the Queen Charlotte Basin, one of the richest marine and forest ecosystems on Earth. It is an area exposed to severe storms, winds, waves, and earthquakes, inhabited by endangered orca whales, wild salmon, and eagles. The region is a critical part of the Pacific Flyway route for millions of migratory birds and home to the more than 5.6 million seabirds that breed at some 500 locations along the coast.

It is the traditional territory of the Haida, a First Nations people with a history going back at least 9,000 years. Lifting the moratorium in 15 coastal communities, as proposed, would affect these people and their environment, but they have not yet been consulted.

The seas are rough and unpredictable in the Queen Charlotte Basin and Hecate Strait where the drilling is proposed. Just off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, scientists have measured waves the height of a 10 story building. Waves of more than 25 meters (82 feet) have been known to occur during extreme storms, sometimes developing in less than eight hours. Hecate Strait is swept by some of the fiercest winds anywhere, some exceeding 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour.

Queen Charlotte Islands view (Photo courtesy B.C. Resources Ministry)

The winds here are predominantly westerlies; the currents are generally southerly, which means that any major oil spill would flow south from the Queen Charlottes, impacting the coast of British Columbia and possibly Washington.

To add to the challenges of offshore exploration and drilling, the region is prone to great earthquakes, with a history of major seismic activity. Quakes have been recorded up to magnitudes of 8.1 on the Richter Scale in 1949, and 7.0 in 1929 and in 1970. Some of Canada’s most powerful shocks have occurred in the vicinity of the Queen Charlotte Islands, on Vancouver Island, and off the island’s west coast.

Scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada office near Sidney, British Columbia record and locate approximately 1,000 earthquakes each year in western Canada.

The push for oil and gas began with the British Columbia government, which started the process moving by asking the federal government to lift its moratorium on exploration.

The February 11, 2003 Speech from the Throne states that "by 2010, the Province wants to have an offshore oil and gas industry that is up and running, environmentally sound, and booming with job creation."

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell (Photo courtesy Government of British Columbia)

The oil companies do not appear to be interested in offshore oil exploration and development in the Queen Charlotte Basin. They are busy in other areas of British Columbia, such as the booming northeast sector where the gas industry is producing $1 billion to $2 billion a year for the province.

One oil executive, Ian Smyth, past-president of the Canadian Petroleum Association, said last summer, “You go and find me one oil company whose name is recognizable to an informed Canadian, who has expressed interest in offshore oil drilling [on the West Coast], and I will buy you lunch in Paris.”

Still, the province is moving ahead with development plans. In May 2003, the provincial government established the British Columbia Offshore Oil and Gas Team with a stated mandate of enabling "offshore oil and gas development to occur in British Columbia in a scientifically sound and environmentally responsible manner."

The federal government responded to the province’s request to lift the moratorium with a process that many see as going through the motions of a scientific and public review.

The Royal Society of Canada, a national scientific research body, was appointed to examine the effects of offshore exploration and the possibility of lifting the moratorium.

"Provided an adequate regulatory regime is put in place, there are no science gaps that need to be filled before lifting the moratoria on oil and gas development," the Society concluded.

Tufted puffin on one of the Scott Islands, located off the extreme northern tip of Vancouver Island, potentially in the path of an oil spill. Recognized as a globally significant bird area, Environment Canada is proposing a wildlife conservation area here. (Photo courtesy DSF)

Otto Langer, DSF director of marine conservation, said that only 10 days notice of participation in the review was given to some scientists and environmental groups. And others, like the DSF, were denied participation even after they had submitted their proposals.

The process of gathering public input is now complete. Last week, the three member panel appointed by the federal government held its final public input session. Over six weeks, the panel heard some 200 presentations from individuals and organizations.

But critics say the panel is biased towards the oil and gas industry. The panel is chaired by Roland Priddle, a senior associate of the Canadian Petroleum Institute, a member of the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame, a former chair Canada’s National Energy Board, and a former assistant deputy minister for petroleum with the federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.

Roland Priddle chairs the federal Public Review Panel of the offshore oil and gas moratorium. (Photo courtesy Canadian Petroleum Institute)

Priddle is also a former Shell employee; Shell holds exploration rights to a large portion of British Columbia offshore waters.

Panel member Don Scott is a former mayor of Prince Rupert and a vocal proponent of offshore oil. Dr. Diana Valiela is a lawyer with the Vancouver firm ofLawson Lundell, which includes petroleum companies among its clients.

The public meetings got somewhat rough. At a public session in Victoria, one of the presenters, Stuart Hertzog, a researcher with the Sea Watch Ecological Society, would not let up on his questioning of Priddle’s connections to the oil industry. The panel walked out on the public meeting and did not return, even though subsequent speakers had not made their presentations yet.

In its submission to the panel, the British Columbia government estimates the oil and gas reserves off the province's west coast could produce C$110 billion in total, given a price of US$5 per thousand cubic feet for natural gas and US$30 per barrel for oil.

But according to a study just released by nine Simon Fraser University researchers, the reserves will not yield nearly that much. They estimate that it would be a modest sized industry creating “less than 200” direct jobs for British Columbians and contributing annual resource royalties of C$18 million.

Many numbers have been flown to indicate the size of the resource. Some critics question the higher estimates, including Calgary oilman Rob Woronuk, a senior analyst with the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, a volunteer group of industry and government geoscientists. In the 1960s, during a brief lifting of the moratorium, Woronuk assisted with surveys, picked the sites, and chose the drilling rigs. They ended up drilling 18 dry holes, and Shell gave up after failing to discover commercial accumulations of oil and gas.

In fact, no one will know what size the reserves are until seismic testing is done. But environmentalists and some scientists say that allowing the process to begin endangers the marine creatures and their habitat, starting with seismic testing.

View of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Photo courtesy B.C. Resources Ministry)

Other industries, such as fishing and tourism, are concerned about the threat oil and gas drilling might pose to their profits. The provincial government said the reserves could be worth C$4.5 billion a year. The $9.2 billion dollar tourism industry, which in 2001 employed 113,000 British Columbians, is concerned about the reaction of tourists who, seeing oil rigs and tankers from their cruise ships, might stop buying cruise ship berths.

Oil spills are a serious issue on the west coast of North America after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

Environmentalists in British Columbia took note of a paper co-authored by Simon Fraser University biology research associate Daniel Esler, published last December in the journal "Science." It showed that the environmental impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill went far beyond the hundreds of thousands of sea birds, marine animals, and organisms killed in the first days and months following the spill. Oil continues to contaminate habitats and food chains decades later.

The B.C. government's performance in regulating the oil and gas industry has been less than satisfactory to conservationists. An audit of the booming industry in northeastern area of the province released last fall found widespread environmental infractions related to stream crossings and sewage disposal. Almost one third of stream crossings investigated by the Oil and Gas Commission this year violated regulations, raising concerns over potential damage to fish habitat. Another one third of remote exploration sites used improper sewage disposal and storage practices.

Once the public review panel assesses the submissions from the last few weeks of meetings, the last step in the federal government’s process is consulting with the First Nations people. But Chief Stewart Phillip, head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, has not heard about the process yet.

Chief Philip told ENS that the Union, which was active in having the original moratorium put in place, gives this particular process “a big thumbs down.”

Mist in the Queen Charlotte Basin (Photo courtesy B.C. Resources Ministry)

Natural Resources Canada has appointed Cheryl Brooks, a member of the Sto:lo Nation, and an associate professor of indigenous corporate relations at Royal Roads University in Victoria, as facilitator of the First Nations engagement process.

When all input is gathered, one man, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources John Efford, a Liberal, will make the decision on whether or not to begin the legislative process of lifting the moratorium.

His attitude can be judged from one of his most famous quotes regarding Canada’s sealing industry. “I would like to see the six million seals, or whatever number is out there, killed and sold, or destroyed and burned," Efford said.

Karen Campbell, legal counsel from the West Coast Environmental Law Association, says that even if the oil and gas reserves are anywhere near as big as proponents claim, they would only provide the equivalent of a two month supply of oil and a six month supply of gas for the United States.

“To put so much at risk is ludicrous,” said Gerry Bloomer, a presenter at one of the public review sessions, “If the moratorium is lifted by this government now, or ever, then the people involved could certainly be inducted into the Petroleum Hall of Shame.”

Read historical information and scientific reports about the British Columbia offshore oil and gas potential online at: http://www.offshoreoilandgas.gov.bc.ca/offshore-oil-and-gas-in-bc/

See the terms of reference for the federal review at: http://www2.nrcan.gc.ca/es/erb/prb/english/View.asp?x=613

See a map of British Columbia offshore oil and gas reserves online at: http://www.offshoreoilandgas.gov.bc.ca/offshore-map-gallery/

See: http://www.marinergroup.com/oil-spill-history.htm for a list of oil rig spills and blow-outs.