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Canada imposing tanker ban Trudeau instructs cabinet ministers to formalize parliamentary motion to ban crude shipments off northern British Columbia coast GARY PARK For Petroleum News
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ordered measures to activate a non-binding motion passed by the Canadian Parliament in 2010 to ban oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s northern coast, which could scuttle Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project to export oil sands crude to the Asia-Pacific region.
But the call for a moratorium is not expected to affect the movement of about 300 tankers a year from Alaska to Puget Sound and California, which operate under a 1988 voluntary tanker exclusion zone that requires loaded oil tankers to operate more than 50 nautical miles off the British Columbia coast.
The Alaska tankers are deemed too dangerous to travel through Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound, which are the areas that will primarily be affected by the ban.
The measure agreed to by Canada and the United States was targeted at keeping tankers out of the inside strait east of the Queen Charlotte Islands, now known as Haida Gwaii.
The tanker exclusion zone has since been respected by the international shipping industry, but it was never contemplated that one day tankers would travel west from British Columbia.
Formalization planned Trudeau published his mandate letters to each member of his cabinet Nov. 13 and instructed Transport Minister Marc Garneau to work with the ministers of Fisheries and Oceans, Natural Resources and Environment along with the Canadian Coast Guard to develop a way for formalize the 2010 motion.
Enbridge said it will still proceed with its plan to export 525,000 barrels per day of crude bitumen and import 193,000 bpd of condensate, based on the 2014 approval it received last year from the National Energy Board and Canadian government.
“We are confident that the Government of Canada will be embarking on the required consultation with First Nations and Metis in the region, given the potential impact a crude oil tanker ban would have on those communities and Western Canada as a whole,” an Enbridge spokesman said in a statement.
“Northern Gateway received approval last year, following the National Energy Board’s careful examination of the project, one of the most exhaustive reviews of its kind in Canadian history.
“Since then, we have been very clear in stating that we have more work to do in establishing respectful dialogues and achieving improved relationships” with Native people affected by Northern Gateway, he said.
The spokesman said Enbridge is eager to meet with Trudeau and his cabinet “to provide an update on the progress of our project” along with the partnerships it has established with First Nations and Metis.
Tightening of rules The Canadian and British Columbia governments have been engaged since 1959 in a step-by-step tightening of rules, starting with a moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas in the coastal waters off British Columbia, although exploration work was eventually conducted by Shell Canada, Gulf Oil and Union Oil.
In 1972 the House of Commons unanimously supported the non-binding motion that the movement of oil tankers along the British Columbia coastline was harmful to Canadian interests.
Then the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1989 put a stop to exploration, although the Canadian government in 2004 commissioned a three-part report on resuming exploration, but has yet to take any action on the recommendations.
One conclusion from a science review said the moratorium should be upheld “even with the improved record of spills in territorial waters off North America in the last 10 years.”
Motion calls for outright ban The 2010 motion calling for an outright ban on bulk oil tanker traffic was passed by 143 to 138 votes in the House of Commons and has been followed by other motions and private bills by Members of Parliament to halt that traffic.
Caitlyn Vernon, campaigns director at the Sierra Club B.C. said a legislated ban “will send a strong message of positive change to all British Columbians, while rebuilding the trust that has been lost over almost a decade in the battle over Northern Gateway.”
Greg Stringham, a vice president of markets with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, told the Vancouver Sun that market access for “responsibly produced” crude remains a priority for the industry.
He said CAPP member companies are prepared to implement “any improvements deemed necessary” to ensure products are safely transported.
British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak noted that shipping and navigation on coastal marine waters are a federal jurisdiction and the commitment was part of the new Liberal government’s election platform, so the action came as no surprise.
However, Vancouver-based energy lawyer Warren Brazier said the way Trudeau’s mandate letter is worded there could be opportunities to export refined crude from the north coast if proposals for projects in British Columbia and Alberta go ahead.
Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said her government does not intend to push for Northern Gateway because of the project’s environmental concerns, but indicated there will be support for Kinder Morgan’s plans to triple capacity on its Trans Mountain system to the Vancouver export terminal and TransCanada’s plan to for the Energy East pipeline to refineries in Quebec and a tanker port in New Brunswick.
“We’re going to work with the ones that have the most possibility of getting done sooner than note. We won’t waste energy on those that don’t have as much promise,” she said.
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