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Nova Scotia opens door to seismic Enticed by North Sea-type basin, petroleum industry faces multi-pronged challenge Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary correspondent
Corridor Resources is wasting no time pressing ahead with seismic exploration in what could be a large new basin offshore Nova Scotia, despite opposition from environmentalists and scientists and threats of a blockade by fishermen.
Enticed by prospects of tapping a basin similar to the North Sea, the Halifax-based exploration company, along with Hunt Oil, has been waiting for more than five years to conduct seismic work. Corridor has a permit covering 790 square miles and Hunt has two licenses covering 2,240 square miles.
How events unfold will be of special interest to the British Columbia government and its offshore leaseholders as they square off with environmentalists and aboriginals in a battle to lift a moratorium on exploration of the British Columbia offshore.
The breakthrough for Corridor came Nov. 28 when the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board cleared the way for scaled-down testing, while imposing stringent conditions to help protect marine life, including having a fisheries observer and marine biologist on boards the seismic vessel.
Other limitations included a ban on seismic work within 10 kilometers of the low-water mark or when a whale is sighted within one kilometer of the vessel. Company will adhere to conditions Corridor President Norm Miller said the regulator’s conditions are tough, but the company is ready to adhere to all of them.
He expects the seismic work covering 300 miles over six days will start almost immediately, depending on the weather.
But the nature of the opposition remains unclear beyond a pledge by the Ecology Action Center that it will seek a reversal of the offshore board’s decision and reports that fishermen may try to stop a seismic ship from reaching the designated area.
A spokeswoman said the board is “gambling with the ecosystem” in a fishery that accounts for 15 percent of Canada’s total catch.
“Are we being held hostage by the oil and gas industry in this province? It feels like it to me,” she said.
Judith Cabrita, managing director of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, said the industry remains “unalterably opposed” to putting a valuable economic sector at risk, especially when other near-shore developments are banned along the East and West coasts of North America.
The Margaree Environmental Association has called on Canada’s Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault to shut down oil and gas exploration and disband the offshore board.
A coalition of fishermen, aboriginals, tourism operators and environmental groups accused federal and provincial politicians of hiding being an unelected “pro oil and gas board.”
A spokeswoman for the board argued that the seismic tests have been approved for a time when fish are migrating, cod will be out of the area, the crab fishery will be over and marine mammals should be gone.
“You cannot prevent an activity from taking place because there is a lack of scientific certainty,” she said.
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