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EnCana gets deadline to pull out
Gary Park For Petroleum News
The person who claims to be responsible for a series of bomb attacks on EnCana natural gas facilities in British Columbia is going high profile.
Taking a brazen approach, the individual has sent two letters to the Dawson Creek News warning EnCana “not to press the issue in your pride and force worse things to happen.”
The writer tells the big independent to “cease all your activities and remove all your installations.”
“Return the land to what it was before you came, every last bit of it, including your fancy gas plant at Kelly Lake before things get a lot worse for you and your terrorist pals in the oil and gas business.
“Use your excessive earnings to install green energy alternatives instead.
“That can be negotiated here, but there will be no negotiations with you on fossil fuel activities. FULL STOP!”
Three-month warning The individual gives EnCana three months to “convince the residents here and the general public” that it will stop operations in the Dawson Creek area.
The letter said the “six minor and fully controlled explosions” were designed to let EnCana know “that you are indeed vulnerable, can be rendered helpless despite your megafunds, your political influence, craftiness and deceit, in which you trust.”
“You have five years to shut down and remove all oil and gas facilities you have established over the last eight years in our territories of the Toms Lake and Kelly lake districts. Don’t delay.”
A spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the remarks are “very concerning” and are being taken “serious.”
University of Alberta sociologist Paul Joosse, who has made a close study of eco-terrorism, said people such as the writer derive a “criminal excitement” from their activities.
“Now that there has been national coverage … their appetite has been whetted for this attention and they want more.”
Joosse said the second letter — similar to the first — may have been prompted by the Mounties use of the term “domestic terrorism” to describe the attacks.
Reward offered EnCana has posted a C$500,000 reward for information leading to the perpetrator. As well more than 250 investigators have been involved and 450 area residents have been interviewed, with one of them complaining he has been interrogated up to eight times.
A Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute report, sponsored by Nexen and completed before the two latest explosions, warned that violent acts or blockades against northern Alberta’s oil and gas industry can be expected in the years ahead, but said the events are unlikely to be organized or widespread unless various groups band together, which author Tom Flanagan said has yet to happen.
He wrote that a “nightmare scenario” would involve a linkage between warrior societies (from aboriginal communities) and eco-terrorists.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the industry is working closely with all levels of government to ensure the safety of residents and employees and will consult with any stakeholders who are involved in non-violent campaigns to understand their concerns.
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