Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[A voice]

Oil sands.

[Will Koop]

Oh, sorry, the oil sands. Sorry about that.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

It's the company spin. You need to get it from government once in a while.

[Will Koop]

It's even in the United States. With the Bush administration, for instance, a very serious thing occurred. The Bush-Cheney administration allowed the energy companies to enter public lands, public forest lands, forest reserves, and those areas were impacted and undermined. Lots of people rose up to say, “No planning is going on. What's going on? What's going to happen to the wildlife and all the things around these places?”

The whole theme of cumulative effects is politically laced. It's very difficult to get these things done because there isn't an atmosphere to tolerate them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Cullen.

Mr. Anderson is next, for up to seven minutes.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I'll share my time with Mr. Harris.

Ms. Poole-Moffatt, I don't know if Mr. Cullen is aware that there was a follow-up report. You seem to want to say something about the report you referred to. Is there anything you'd like to put on the record about that? We would like a copy of it for the committee as well.

[Natalie Poole-Moffatt]

Yes, the Oil and Gas Commission and the Auditor General did a follow-up. You should probably check with the B.C. government, but I believe the Auditor General's report came out while they were doing the Oil and Gas Activities Act. I'm not disputing that, but they did find out they were doing the Oil and Gas Activities Act, and many other things were addressed through that.

We can certainly help you obtain those documents, if you like.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Wall, over the last couple of days we've heard concerns about the number of wells that need to be put in place to access this resource. You talked about multiple wells on one site. That seems to be a good use of a site. Is that accurate?

[Timothy Wall]

It's a spectacular use, as opposed to the traditional way, where you put one well in a 360-acre lot, and then you go over 360 acres and drill another well, and you have a pad associated with each one of those wells at the drill location.

On the way we work now on these pads in Horn River, you drill 16 wells off one location. So you have one location, you drill 16 well bores in different directions, and you can drain 2,000 acres, whereas before you might drain a couple hundred acres with a well. Now this pad can drill 2,000 acres, so it's very efficient.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Good.

I want you to tell me a little bit about community participation and how you fit into the communities. Your company has been involved in my part of the world, southwest Saskatchewan, for a while. Can you talk a little about your role in communities and how important that is to your company?

[Timothy Wall]

I'll start with Saskatchewan. We operate the Midale Unit, which is a CO2 enhanced recovery injection unit. It's offset by the Weyburn Unit.

All the people in that area are local people, local guys. We're part of that community. We've been in that community for a long time. We see ourselves as trying to be the most responsible we can be, because we live there. Our people live there. The Apache people are from there.

In the new areas we go into, we understand there are people who don't understand what we do. I have to be honest with you, a lot of people have no idea what we actually do for a living and what we've done for a living for many years. In areas like New Brunswick, we were down there early on. We tried to talk to as many people as we could--environmental groups, community groups--to give them the data to understand what we do and who we are. We let them look us in the eyes and ask us questions, and we try to be a part of that community. We're going to live there for the next many years, and the people who will work for us will be in that community.

In Horn River we were a little bit innovative. I have to be honest with you that it didn't have anything to do with me; I wasn't there yet. I've only been there for a short while. But the guys created the Horn River group of producers. They got together our producers in the Horn River area and talked about issues. They talked to the community, the first nations, and anybody who would talk to them. They tried to explain what they did, how they did it, and what to expect with the activity there.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Over the last couple of days we've heard a lot of strange accusations about the industry. I don't want to run through them, but the one we heard today is that it's your industry's fault that the globe won't be able to reach its two-degree climate change goal.

I thought you might have a reaction to that.

[Timothy Wall]

No, I'll defer that one.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

The other one is about the technology. I'd like to hear a little more about that. Basically, over the last couple of days.... The question is, are you technological idiots?

[Timothy Wall]

I don't think so. We've put a lot of money into technology. Being innovative gives you that competitive edge, trying to find out ways to do things differently that benefit not only your stakeholders but the people in the community and around you. We're always trying to improve what we do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

You still have three minutes.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Go ahead.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

All right, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, guests.

Mr. Koop, actually I would appreciate some very short answers, as I have a number of questions.

Mr. Koop, listening to your testimony, it sounds to me like you don't have any trust at all in this industry, and you would prefer that the guys in the shale gas business would just maybe pack up their rigs and go home. Just a short yes or no. Am I seeing this right?

[Will Koop]

The title of the website is quite provocative, and there's a reason behind it, as I outlined in my testimony before you today.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

A yes or no.

[Will Koop]

No, it's not quite how you paint it. What I've said here is that things are proceeding on such a rapid scale in British Columbia, with the handout of these leases so quickly without understanding what the cumulative environmental repercussions are--I'm just repeating myself.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

How many years do you think it would take in British Columbia to be able to adopt all of the things that you're looking for? Once they got there, would there be any interest in the industry at all from the stakeholders?

[Will Koop]

There are two things involved here. Where is this gas going to be going in northeastern British Columbia?

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

We're talking about environmental things. We're not talking about where it's marketed, with all due respect. That's another story. We're talking about taking it out of the ground.

Anyway, I didn't want to get politics into it, but actually you brought it up. You put some blame on the old Social Credit Party--I'm glad you and I are old enough to remember those guys--and also the Liberal Party. I have to ask the question, is there any political organization in B.C. that you would have confidence in that would maybe curtail the activity for however long it takes to bring it up to your standards? Is there an organization there now? You mentioned the Liberals and Social Credit, so I'm just wondering if you've got a favourite one that you like that would do this sort of thing?

[Will Koop]

I would say there's been difficulty in having good visionary concepts on land-use development in British Columbia.