Showing posts with label Gulf of St. Lawrence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulf of St. Lawrence. Show all posts

08 March 2011

Drilling in Gulf is dangerous and unmanageable

Marilyn Clark, a Magdalen Islander studying at Memorial University, argues that oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is unmanageable and dangerous in the current regulatory context.

She writes in the Montreal Gazette:

What will governance look like with four offshore regulators in less than 500 kilometres of water? If we believe that Quebec and Newfoundland will cooperate to prioritize citizens, we are kidding ourselves. They have already sliced moving water down the middle to conduct their environmental assessments.

The lack of a harmonized approach for a single body of water will permit pollution without political accountability; the citizens of one province will have no way of holding the governments of other provinces responsible.

Why is the government gambling with the assets of my region, while the renewable resources of southwest Nova Scotia and British Columbia are protected? The Gulf only fully flushes itself out once a year. If drill cuttings, waste water and chronic spills are the new ingredients of our Gulf, we will be importing our lobster from the Caribbean and our crab from Asia. How can I be expected to invest in my region when I know that the offshore regulatory framework is so flawed that oil companies monitor themselves?

- srbp -

30 July 2010

Game on! Feds and Quebec start talks on Gulf Accord

The Government of Quebec and the federal government started talks recently aimed at achieving an agreement on revenue sharing for any oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian Press reported.

Details about what the deal would entail, and when it would be implemented, remain vague. But [federal natural resources minister Christian] Paradis described the broad outlines while standing next to [Quebec natural resources minister Nathalie] Normandeau at an event earlier this week.

"We're talking about an administrative deal," he said.

"The goal is to create an office of hydrocarbons, as is the case in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."

At the heart of the move is a potentially lucrative field known as Old Harry.  Believed to contain significant natural gas or oil reserves, the field lies across a boundary between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador proposed in 1964 but never accepted. 

Both Quebec and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board have issued permits to Corridor Resources to explore Old Harry.

- srbp -

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