IN THE NEWS / Oil Battle Brews Over Pristine Canada Pacific Coast
VANCOUVER, Oct 29 - A battle is brewing over whether to end a 1972 moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas off Canada's Pacific Coast after a recent geological report that said deposits in the region may be far bigger than previously thought.
Geologists have known for years there are potentially vast oil and natural gas deposits off British Columbia. Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. <CHV.N> , Shell Canada Ltd. <SHC.TO>. and Petro-Canada <PCA.TO> have held drilling rights in the region since the early 1970s.
A recent Geological Survey of Canada report said the deposits -- especially around the Queen Charlotte Islands -- could be far larger than previously thought.
Preliminary data indicated there could be up to 9.8 billion barrels of oil and 1,228 billion cubic meters of gas in the area, although geologists stressed economic factors will limit how much can be recovered.
Officials are in no rush to drop the drilling moratorium off Canada's Pacific Coast, adopted more than 25 years ago and renewed after oil spills like the one by the Exxon Valdez tanker in Alaska in 1989.
But they acknowledged that there are calls for a change.
The pressure comes mainly from coastal business interests struggling to cope with the decline of British Columbia's fishing, mining and timber industries. Western Canadian businesses are now looking with envy at promising oil and gas exploration now underway off Canada's Atlantic coast.
"People, if they see some hope, they can hang on. Right now they see no hope," said David McGuigan, a Prince Rupert banker who heads the North Coast Oil and Gas Task Force, which is lobbying for an end to the drilling ban.
The Prince Rupert region has been hard hit by lumber mill closures and its salmon fleet forced to tie up because of depleted stocks. Tapping the energy resource would help revitalize the moribund economy just as it is now doing in Newfoundland.
The moratorium on drilling and exploration off Canada's Pacific Coast was adopted because of concern about protecting the largely pristine coastline from the environmental dangers of oil being shipped to the United States mainland from Alaska.
Canadian officials considered lifting the ban in the 1980s, but the idea died amid a public outcry over a series of international oil spills and tanker accidents, including the Exxon Valdez disaster.
British Columbia Minister of Energy and Mines Dan Miller acknowledged he has discussed the issue "with quite a number of British Columbians," but was quick to add: "But we've not arrived at any conclusions."
"We have no particular timetable for moving forward. I think it is a topic that needs to have a bit of a public discussion." said Miller.
Environments have significant political weight in the province's left-leaning New Democratic government, and one group has already dismissed the proposal as "economically misguided and environmentally dangerous."
"We held this debate 20 years ago and made the right decision then not to endanger our coasts. To go back and revisit that decision now is unnecessary," said David Cadman, president of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation.
"Environmental objections are a given in British Columbia," countered McGuigan.
Drilling supporters contend that the technology to protect the environment has improved since the ban was implemented and been proved on Canada's Atlantic coast and Arctic where the weather and drilling conditions are tougher.
"If (British Columbia officials) have concerns, don't they have any confidence in the judgment in of their peers in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia when they made their judgment?" McGuigan asked hypothetically.
The pro-drilling task force also wants to follow eastern Canada's lead in requiring the oil industry to invest in local communities. One proposal would establish a trust fund to spur other economic development in northern British Columbia.
Miller said the province is aware "there are millions of dollars flowing in Atlantic Canada (from) offshore," but will not "compromise the marine environment" and needs to know there is public support for lifting the ban. |
