N.L. seeking more control over offshore oil rules, as Bill C-69 moves through Ottawa
Province wants blanket environmental assessment to ensure exploratory work moves quickly
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is looking to ensure looming environmental regulations on oil and gas development don't hinder provincial offshore income, and is requesting more control over who gets a say in which drilling projects get approved.
The bill in question is C-69, an environmental assessment proposal that could usher in new regulations for how projects such as pipelines — or offshore exploration, one of the province's current cash cows — are given the green light.
In the House of Assembly on Thursday, Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady said she's in talks with the federal environment minister to ensure the province, not Ottawa, holds the reins over drilling in its offshore.
Coady said recent developments had given the province a louder voice at the bargaining table when it comes to maximizing its offshore income, and the provincial government doesn't want to lose what it's framing as its recent victories.
For instance, Coady said, energy companies were recently granted the freedom to hunt for new wells without waiting for a new environmental assessment each time — a process that sometimes took years.
"This was a key issue for us," Coady said, suggesting that it hampered the province's global competitiveness. "Up to most recently, it would take up to 36 months, three years, to do a 30- to 60-day well for exploration.… Think about that."
She explained the provincial government wants to ensure the bill allows for a general environmental assessment that covers the entire offshore, essentially allowing an investor to dig an exploratory well without going through a lengthy approval process.
"We still want to make sure that's solidified and firm within the legislation," Coady said, adding that she has also requested amendments to the bill that would further augment the province's power to grant drilling projects the go-ahead.
More room for C-NLOPB requested
Coady told reporters the province specifically wants more control over who sits on an approval panel for a project.
In her ongoing letters to federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, Coady said, she asked for the majority of panel members to be from the province's offshore regulator, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB).
Recent amendments by the Senate "inadvertently" left provincial offshore boards out of the picture, Coady said.
C-NLOPB members are the subject experts, she said, and her recent letter to McKenna asked that the province have a say in how members of assessment panels are appointed.
"We want to make sure that exploration wells are now being able to be approved by the Canada-Newfoundland Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board rather than having to go to the panel."
The C-NLOPB came under heavy scrutiny for its hands-off approach with private offshore operators last fall, when a spill from a flowline to the SeaRose FPSO, controlled by Husky Energy, dumped 250,000 litres of crude into the ocean.
Joint management
Coady noted that the province is able to make these requests under the Atlantic Accord, which affords it the right to joint management over its offshore.
She stressed that the province is working with their federal counterparts to ensure changes to the assessment legislation won't negatively affect how the offshore industry does business.
Bill C-69 will head to the Senate for final approval before it can become law.
With files from Katie Breen