U.S. group eyes offshore oil

According to a recent report from the U.S.-based Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, B.C.'s offshore oil and gas could help solve North America's energy problems. The report, Untapped Potential, produced by the commission's North American Coastal Alliance, says that estimated reserves of crude oil off B.C.'s coast amount to nearly half of the proven crude-oil reserves in all of the U.S.

The report claims to be the first to tabulate the entire offshore oil and gas reserves that are "currently unavailable for leasing and development" thanks to various U.S. and Canadian moratoria.

North American offshore "moratorium areas" are estimated to contain about 135 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 30 billion barrels of crude oil, the report notes. In comparison, on December 31, 2004, proven U.S. natural-gas reserves were estimated to be 192.5 trillion cubic feet, while proven U.S. crude-oil reserves amounted to 21.4 billion barrels, it says.

Although the Lancaster Sound Basin in the Eastern Arctic and Nova Scotia's Georges Bank also hold estimated oil and gas reserves, it is B.C. where the real potential lies, according to the report.

B.C.'s offshore moratorium areas in the Queen Charlotte, Georgia, and Tofino/Winona basins have estimated reserves of 41.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 9.8 billion barrels of crude oil. That amounts to nearly two years of U.S. annual gas consumption and about a 20-month supply of crude oil shipped to U.S. refineries. About 80 percent of the estimated natural gas and about 90 percent of the oil in Canadian moratorium areas lie in B.C. waters.

The report is silent about the present moratorium on B.C. offshore oil and gas exploration. (The B.C. government implemented a moratorium on offshore drilling following the Exxon Valdez and Nestucca oil spills in late 1988 and early 1989. The federal government subsequently announced that it would not consider any offshore development until B.C. requested it.)

The report says that if estimated offshore oil and gas reserves now under moratorium in the U.S. and Canada were exploited, "they would play an important role in meeting future North American energy requirements from hydrocarbon reserves on the continent."

The report was recently posted, without fanfare, on the Web site of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and one of its contributors is Boris Tyzuk, a legal counsel with the ministry's offshore oil and gas division. B.C., as well as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, are members of the commission, along with eight U.S. coastal states.

The U.S. Department of Energy provides a "significant amount of funding" for the alliance, according to the report.

During the throne-speech debate last month, North Coast New Democrat Gary Coons told the legislature he hoped that the "pipe dream of offshore oil and gas exploration" is finally put to rest.

"Water and oil do not mix," Coons told the house on March 8, according to Hansard. He later added: "The moratorium must stay in place."

Responding to Coons, Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell sarcastically thanked him for "coming clean" with his views on offshore oil and gas "I can't understand why a member would have such a closed mind, why he wouldn't want to look at the science and the technology," Bell told the house. "I'm not sure that he wants to have big oil tankers going up and down the coast," Bell said. "Maybe that's the alternative to offshore oil and gas, as opposed to being able to extract it in an environmentally friendly way. So why not think outside the box?"

Given the flak that the B.C. government has received over the treatment of children in foster care, it's nice to be able to report good news.