To be exact, BP Canada has been authorized by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) to move the Seadrill West Aquarius drilling unit into Canada-Nova Scotia waters – but only to do preparatory work in anticipation of getting a permit for its planned drilling of an exploration well off the coast of Halifax.
However, the move into Nova Scotia waters may include the mobilization of additional supplies and equipment to the drilling unit, notes the Energy Business Review.
CBC News is reporting that in a news release, CNSOPB Board CEO Stuart Pinks said: “BP Canada has met all the regulatory requirements and that vessels, equipment, plans, and procedures have been reviewed to ensure that they are safe and environmentally responsible.”
The company submitted applications in September 2017 to drill about 300 kilometers offshore Nova Scotia. The drilling program will include four exploration licenses known as the “Scotian Basin Exploration Project.”
Anti-drilling activists not happy
But some people aren’t so sure of the board’s enthusiastic approach to the authorization given to BP Canada. “The fix is in,” John Davis, director of the fishery lobby group Clean Ocean Action Committee, said in an interview with DeSmog Canada.
“You don’t spend $260,000 a day moving a rig of that size and complexity unless you know that you’re going to receive approval. It’s like building a house on land you don’t own: it’s not a good plan unless you know you’re going to get the land. And they know they’re going to get the land.”
And that is the heart of the whole issue – Everyone believes BP Canada already knows it will be getting approval to drill in Nova Scotia waters.
The Nova Scotia Branch of the Council of Canadians Acting for Social Justice is not happy about the BP Canada drilling venture, at all. They say BP should be disqualified from getting a drilling permit because of their part in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010.
“Join the Council of Canadians, the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia, fishermen, tourism operators and treaty rights holders, and all those who think we deserve a lot better than anything BP has to offer at the Unwelcoming Party!,” says the description of the Facebook event.
BP Canada’s offshore activity comes over a year after Shell decided to seal two exploration wells.
