Delay Arctic drilling hearings, energy board urged

The National Energy Board is being asked by some oil companies, the Northwest Territories government and other interested parties to postpone upcoming hearings on Beafort Sea drilling in light of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The board has been reviewing its Same Season Relief Well Capability Policy, which requires companies to drill a relief well in the same season that they're drilling in their main well in order to relieve pressure on the main well in the event of a blowout in.

The board is slated to hold hearings on the issue early next month in Inuvik, N.W.T.

But on Monday, ConocoPhillips, Transocean Inc. and Imperial Oil asked the NEB to postpone those hearings until more information becomes available about the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and the subsequent oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.

The drilling rig exploded April 20 and sank two days later, killing 11 people and busting a pipe leading from the well, which began spewing oil and continues to leak about 800,000 litres a day.

In a letter to the board, ConocoPhillips Canada Resources said the NEB hearings should be delayed "until at least preliminary investigation findings into the Deepwater Horizon incident cause(s) are available."

Could learn from incident

The company said that the NEB's review of the relief-well policy "will result in a policy designed for long-term management of drilling in the Canadian Arctic."

"It is ConocoPhillips' position that all stakeholders will benefit from investigation findings into the cause(s) of this incident as well as initial lessons learned from the incident response," the letter reads in part.

In its own letter to the board, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) also called on the policy hearings to be postponed until the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon spill is complete.

"At this juncture, CAPP would be unable to address any question related to the event, its causes and hence implications for Arctic offshore drilling," the association's letter states.

However, Chevron said the NEB's policy review should go ahead as planned, arguing that it would take too long to fully understand the Gulf of Mexico incident.

"The time required to attempt to gain a full understanding of the root causes behind the Deepwater Horizon incident will likely be considerable," Chevron stated in its letter.

"Chevron is of the view that the scope of the broader … policy review before the board is appropriate and should remain unchanged."

Some oil companies that want to explore in the Beaufort Sea have asked to be exempted from being required to drill relief wells, arguing that in the Arctic, it would be too difficult to drill a relief and a main well in one drilling season.

Investigations underway: BP

BP, the company responsible for the oil spill, stated in its own letter to the NEB that it is "committing substantial expertise and resource at all levels" to deal with the Gulf of Mexico spill.

BP has launched its own investigation while the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Department of Homeland Security are holding a joint inquiry, according to the company. It did not say whether or not the board should postpone its Arctic offshore drilling hearings.

The N.W.T. government and the Inuvialuit Game Council in Inuvik have also submitted letters asking the NEB to hold off on hearing the issue until investigations shed more light on the Gulf of Mexico incident.

"There are a number of questions that will arise as a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident, and it is essential that we have at least some preliminary details available about what happened," Steven Baryluk, the game council's resource management co-ordinator, told CBC News.

"So, the game council has respectfully requested that the NEB postpone or delay the technical conference for the time being."

The N.W.T. government has called for the entire policy review process to be "adjourned generally until the results of the investigations" can be fully considered by all parties.

The Sierra Club of Canada called for a moratorium on all new offshore drilling in Canada, arguing that there should be an open examination and public debate on Arctic drilling before any policies take effect.