LNG - Fracking

Fracking is a critical component of the B.C. Liberal government’s aspiration to develop a liquefied natural gas industry, and the public has been assured the practice is safe and well regulated.

A recent B.C. Environmental Appeal Board judgment, however, chronicles a provincial decision-making process around a fracking operation that was informed by untried, slapdash science.

It is not the picture painted by Premier Christy Clark and her government. “We have the best record of fracking in the world,” she told The Globe and Mail in October, 2013. “We’re good at it.”

Northern B.C. First Nation members say they stopped Malaysian state-controlled Petronas, the company behind an $11.4-billion liquefied natural gas terminal, from starting test ocean drilling in northwest B.C. this weekend.

The 33-metre Quin Delta drill ship, owned by Gregg Marine in California, and a barge were moved into the waters off Lelu Island near Prince Rupert by Pacific NorthWest LNG early Saturday morning.

Some equipment was set up before First Nations went out to the ship and asked the workers to stop, said Joey Wesley, a Lax Kw’alaams First Nation member.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015 1:12 PM

Press Release September 9, 2015

9 Allied Tribes of Lax'walams Support Hereditary Chiefs LeLu Island Camp To Stop Proposed LNG Plant.

Hereditary Chiefs & House Leaders of the Lax'walams First Nation have established a Camp on LeLu Island to stop further work on the proposed LNG Plant on the Flora Bank, a pristine fishing location.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015 1:12 PM

Press Release September 9, 2015

9 Allied Tribes of Lax'walams Support Hereditary Chiefs LeLu Island Camp To Stop Proposed LNG Plant.

Hereditary Chiefs & House Leaders of the Lax'walams First Nation have established a Camp on LeLu Island to stop further work on the proposed LNG Plant on the Flora Bank, a pristine fishing location.

FORT NELSON, BC / Treaty 8 Territory, Sept. 7, 2015 /CNW/ - Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) has won a major legal challenge against the BC government and Nexen Inc., an upstream oil and gas company. The first long-term water license granted in the Horn River Basin for shale gas fracking has been cancelled, effective immediately, by the Environmental Appeal Board (EAB).

The license, issued to Nexen in 2012, authorized the company to pump millions of cubic meters of water from Tsea Lake, a small lake in FNFN territory, each year until 2017.

Proposed LNG projects are under pressure as prices are stuck in the US$7-US$8 per million British thermal unit range, compared to the US$11-US$12 needed long-term to make project economics work.

A new LNG project envisioned for Vancouver Island would accept natural gas via an underwater pipeline that would weave from Washington State through the Gulf Islands, according to a proposal released Tuesday.

The liquefied natural gas project, which already has the backing of the Malahat First Nation, was announced last month. The proponent, Steelhead LNG Corp., has retained Williams Cos. Inc. to build the 128-kilometre pipeline – starting with a 53-km segment in Washington State and then extending 75 km underwater.

At least two earthquakes in British Columbia over the past year – including one last week – are among the largest ever caused by natural gas fracking in North America and were both strong enough to force temporary shutdowns of operations.

But while the province’s oil and natural gas ministry as well as the shale gas industry have both played down the severity of fracking-induced quakes – insisting they are rare and present no threat to people or buildings – experts caution much is still not known about just how strong a fracking-induced earthquake could be.

“Everybody outside the Northwest thinks that’s where energy projects go to die.” That’s the reputation our region has earned as an increasing number of proposed coal and oil export projects have encountered ferocious opposition.