Canada’s newly appointed natural resources minister is considering ending a ban against drilling in one of the nation’s most environmentally-sensitive spots, the Queen Charlotte Islands area offshore of British Columbia. Herb Dhaliwal pledged to keep an open mind — and hinted at adopting an encouraging attitude toward industry expansion in British Columbia — after an introductory meeting in Calgary with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Dhaliwal said he will be “very interested” to see the forthcoming report of a review panel that has been reconsidering Canada’s 30-year-old West Coast drilling moratorium since last summer.

“When there is opportunity to create jobs and economic opportunities, and we can do it in a sustainable way, we should be open to those things,” said the new minister. He moved into the Canadian cabinet’s energy portfolio from its fisheries and oceans desk in a shuffle by Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Dhaliwal represents a British Columbia constituency in Parliament in Ottawa, and he made it plain that he hears his home province’s hunger for economic activity on new fronts. British Columbia’s other industrial mainstays, forest products and mining, have been devastated by a lumber trade dispute with the U.S. and weak minerals prices.

British Columbia’s Liberal government has kept a commitment, made as soon as it won power by defeating the left-leaning New Democratic Party administration in mid-2001, to review the drilling moratorium in “expedited fashion.” A review panel is scheduled to recommend next steps within weeks.

Environmental groups such as the Living Oceans Society are already mounting protests against an apparent reversal of the political tide that has kept the West Coast off limits to the petroleum industry. Academic and commercial geological agencies have resumed studies of the area.

Chevron Canada Resources, Shell Canada and Petro-Canada have long held drilling rights in the region, a highly scenic area rich in wildlife off the northern British Columbia coast. In the mid-1990s, the producers made a move to appease environmental opponents by giving back to the government the most sensitive coastal areas adjacent to an island wilderness park.

Geological experts, including participants in the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, describe the drilling prospects in the area as complex and risky but worth a look as potentially harboring significant discoveries. On the strength of early surveys and a handful of wells drilled before the moratorium was enacted in 1972, the Geological Survey of Canada has rated the area’s potential at 26 Tcf of gas and 9.8 billion bbl of oil.

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