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Joint government effort needed to develop B.C. offshore
Gary Park, PNA Canadian correspondent
As British Columbia engages in debate over whether or not to open its offshore to oil and gas exploration, there is a need to resolve ownership and management of the resource region, said Patrick O’Rourke, assistant deputy minister for Energy and Mines with the British Columbia government.
Speaking to the Gowlings’ Energy and Natural Resources conference in Calgary Sept. 11, he said that requires the British Columbia and Canadian governments to make a “joint effort” to achieve a “cooperative agreement.”
Federal Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal has already set a deadline of 12 to 18 months to sort out the outstanding offshore issues.
A scientific panel appointed by the British Columbia government has also urged that ownership of the Hecate Strait, covering about 38,000 square miles, be clarified. Shell, Petro-Canada, Chevron hold leases The strait is seen as the pivotal oil and gas resource of an offshore estimated to hold 9.8 billion barrels of oil and 25.9 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is where Shell Canada Ltd., Petro-Canada and Chevron Canada Resources hold the primary exploration leases.
For O’Rourke, the priority is “cooperative development or it simply won’t work.”
On the matter of jurisdiction, he understood provincial ownership ended at the low-tide mark on the British Columbia coast, but it was unknown whether the Hecate Strait would be treated in the same way as the west coast of Vancouver Island.
O’Rourke suggested there were two options open to the governments — obtaining court rulings, or for both sides to set aside those arguments and agree that each had “some degree of authority.”
On management, he said the roles of the two governments were open to negotiation, along with the division of royalties and revenues that would be generated by offshore development.
He said it was not necessary to resolve ownership to settle the management issue, “just the willingness to reach an agreement.”
O’Rourke said he did not believe a Haida First Nation writ filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court in March laying claim to Hecate Strait was “necessarily fatal.”
He said the First Nation might just be starting the action to preserve its position and take no further steps until “they see how things go.”
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