Gaspé bans oil drilling; Petrolia halts work
Mayor says city will not risk its drinking water
Gaspésians have known they are sitting on a silent pool of oil for more than a century, but exploration is now showing a rich potential for development — one field alone may contain 800 million barrels worth almost $1 billion.
Oil is manna for one of Quebec’s poorest regions and the leading exploration company, Petrolia Inc., can see future production of at least 20,000 barrels daily or enough to fill five per cent of the province’s needs.
“You use the same drilling equipment as for natural gas,” Petrolia CEO André Proulx said, “but there’s much less risk of groundwater contamination because the drill sites are far from the towns.”
But controversy over Petrolia’s planned $6.5-million Haldiman 4 drilling project near the town of Gaspé has become almost as strident as the fight over shale gas exploration in the St. Lawrence Lowlands and a $1-billion liquefied natural gas import terminal just east of Quebec City.
The Haldiman 4 project attracted province-wide attention after the Gaspé municipal council issued an order banning oil exploration in its confines.
Proulx immediately suspended Haldiman 4 work while the Marois government hammers out a clearcut set of environmental and other oil regulations.
Gaspé Mayor François Roussy says he is, in principle, in favour of oil and gas development in the Gaspé Peninsula, “but there can be no compromising the quality of drinking water … a vital resource that we hand on to our children and their children.”
The provincial government also supports oil exploration in the Appalachian regions of Quebec and it owns 11 per cent of Petrolia. But it demands full protection for the environment and has imposed a moratorium on natural gas drilling.
Some local groups in the Gaspé Peninsula want Haldiman 4 halted altogether on environmental grounds, while a business group claiming to speak for the “silent majority” backs Petrolia. Haldiman 4 holds the key to knowing more about the Gaspé reservoirs, Proulx said.
Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet is taking the same ultracautious approach as in the controversy over mining royalties.
“A delay will make a better risk assessment possible … to have gone ahead with Haldiman 4 now would have been unhelpful for everyone,” she said.
Premier Pauline Marois, at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said: “Quebec is not giving up on oil. … The Gaspé ban raises many questions.”
She promised to reassure citizens on both sides of the issue and negotiate with the exploration companies.
Liberal Opposition spokesman Pierre Paradis called on the Marois government to develop a clear set of rules covering oil exploration, separating oil and gas from the present mining law. Citing Gaspé-Magdalen Islands jobless rates running twice the provincial average, Proulx said the town of Gaspé’s move deprives the region of economic growth that would benefit everyone, but the present tensions won’t go away.
He is backed by the Regroupement pour l’avenir économique de la Gaspésie, which cites “systematic blockage” by the Gaspé council.
Deferring Haldimand 4 temporarily will give the government time to craft a more constructive approach,” Proulx said.
Petrolia will keep the heavy drilling equipment at Haldimand 4, hoping to restart in a few months. It will continue oil drilling near Murdochville, in the Gaspé, and on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.