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The oil company BP has decided to put an end to the drilling of the first authorized exploration well in a “marine refuge” on the Canadian east coast. This project, approved by the Trudeau government, had been denounced by environmental groups, worried about seeing the industry access an area supposed to protect biodiversity. However, other drilling could follow in this same region.
The multinational had chartered a ship to drill an exploratory well in an area where the water depth reaches 1339 meters, more than 400 kilometers from the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. The drilling, which had been launched at the beginning of May, was finally abandoned in the past few days.
Why did BP decide to stop the oil exploration project in this area? The company declined to provide details to the Duty, merely pointing out that operations are continuing in order to “complete the drilling program in a safe manner” in this region located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. “We are in the process of closing and abandoning the well,” a spokesperson said by email.
Well versed in offshore oil development in eastern Canada, biologist Sylvain Archambault of the Society for Nature and Parks believes the abandonment of drilling may mean the well has turned out to be “dry”. , that it had “very low potential” or that the company completed the project faster than expected. He adds that, in the oil industry, this abandonment was perceived as bad news and he sees in it “a cold shower on the whole project”.
The Trudeau government had authorized in 2020 the project of about twenty boreholes, but BP had finally planned only one within the limits of the most important “marine refuge” created by the Trudeau government off the east coast of Canada. This area of more than 55,000 km2 is one of the marine environments that have been protected in order to achieve the biodiversity conservation objectives for 2020.
The 2020 report by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), which focused on BP’s 20-well project, however, specified that “oil and gas exploration activities are not prohibited”. in marine refuges.
He also insisted on the richness of the marine biodiversity of the sector. “The Project area and surrounding marine environments are used by fish and invertebrate species of commercial, cultural or ecological value, and support regionally important areas for marine biodiversity and productivity,” reads the statement. this report. There are “many species of fish at risk”, corals, birds and several species of cetaceans, some of which are threatened.
Future drilling?
BP did not give details on the continuation of its projects off the Canadian coast, where it controls in whole or in part several exploration permits.
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, which is administered by provincial and Canadian government representatives, launched a call for tenders in the spring for new oil exploration permits. No less than 14 of these permits, totaling 22,757 km2, encroach in part or in whole on the marine refuge where BP had been authorized to drill.
Last month, Canada’s Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, however, affirmed that the federal government was complying with international rules regarding the protection of natural environments and the species that depend on them. “In terms of designing protected areas and achieving our goals, we follow the guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which provide for different categories of protection. This is what guides the action of our government, ”he argued at a press conference.
Marine refuges are considered “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs), under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rules. A 2019 report produced by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas OECM Working Group notes that “industrial activities and infrastructure development that harm the environment should not occur in the AMCEs »