Fisheries Committee on Feb. 15th, 2011

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

You did things like mapping of the ocean floor and so on. Would all of that be required as part of the environmental impact statement that you are going to have to provide if you ever get to the place where you're going to submit an application to drill?

[Michael Peacock]

Some of the data would have been required. The data that we collected wouldn't have been as exhaustive and as comprehensive as we've been able to acquire. Again, that's the great thing about a collaboration like this. It allows you to maximize the amount of information and data that we can collect.

Again, I'll come back to the fact that this data then is publicly available. It helps all the scientific community. It helps all the agencies. It's not data that Imperial Oil or BP is going to keep buried away in a basement filing cabinet. It allows us to share the data and acquire more data.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Are there any other comments?

[Anita Perry]

I would just say that we would do the same. I mean, you do both sides. There's environmental data you collect before you ever get to the point of making an application to explore.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Are there other oil companies that are part of ArcticNet?

[Anita Perry]

I'm not sure who else is in, but I believe Chevron had a lease acquisition last summer. Right now, for us, it's us and Imperial.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

When the work is going on, on the Amundsen, for example, for this scientific research that you're engaged in with ArcticNet, just help me understand: who's on this ship? Is it Imperial Oil or BP scientists alone? Are there many explorations going on at the same time on the same platform with other scientists, other ArcticNet consortium scientists?

[Michael Peacock]

That's an excellent question. The boat is predominantly staffed by ArcticNet staff. We certainly had some of our scientists on board. I would say that we had between two and five scientists on board during some of the phases of the program.

[Anita Perry]

In our case, we had a few students from Inuvik in the “Schools on Board” program.

But I think what's important to understand as well is that the whole time the Amundsen is out there, BP would not necessarily be using the Amundsen the whole time, right? We ask for a phase and certain things we want; I don't want to oversimplify, but we do kind of put our order in, and there's a certain time and date when they collect our data. ArcticNet may be doing research for others as well. We have a certain phase and a certain geography that they're going to pass through that would have our data that we want.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

So you tell ArcticNet and its consortium of scientists what data you'd like to collect, and those scientists develop the plan, I assume in consultation with your scientists. Is that right?

[Anita Perry]

Yes, absolutely.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

So there may be other projects going on during the one voyage, not just those for BP or Imperial Oil.

[Anita Perry]

That's true.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I think you mentioned the “Schools on Board” program a couple of times. Could you just tell us a bit more about that and how you think that benefits the northern communities?

[Anita Perry]

These are high school--grade 12--or first-year university students, and they get to go and experience science and environmental study. The benefit there is that hopefully, either on their own or through their peers and friends and communities, they will encourage others to enter the field of science.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Well, that's good.

In both letters it was clear that you have these exploration licences with the possibility in the future that there might actually be some drilling for oil. I assume, as companies, you see the value to Canada and the world of environmentally responsible oil production, so you may want to comment on that.

Can you walk us through what the process would be from the day you get this exploration licence until the point where you would perhaps in the future produce oil?

[Michael Peacock]

First off, we have a nine-year licence term. We typically will shoot three-dimensional seismic surveys first. We have to then collect all our environmental data, as we mentioned. We have to submit an environmental impact assessment report with any drilling application.

Then once all that data is collected, we include with it a review of the way we would plan a hypothetical exploration well. It would include an environmental impact assessment. It would also include a social benefits application. Once all that data is collected, it would be submitted to the National Energy Board for approval. That's the process we follow.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

So far you haven't drilled anything, so is this for an exploratory well or a production well?

[Michael Peacock]

This is for an exploration well. Again, I'll come back to the uncertainty we have to start with, because we may never get into the position of drilling an exploration well.

[Anita Perry]

I would just add one point to that. We did our seismic collection two summers ago, and a team working full-time continues to evaluate just that data. That's how much work goes into making a decision on the geophysical side of things as to whether there's something there to drill for.

The other caution I would put out is that you are saying oil, but we don't make a determination yet as to whether it's gas or oil. It's hydrocarbons we're looking at now.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Okay.

As a company, though, you go through this regulatory process. So at the end of the day you may or may not drill for oil, I assume. What's your understanding about what would be required of you in terms of oil spill mitigation as part of your plan to drill for oil?

[Michael Peacock]

I think most people here will be aware that the National Energy Board has convened a public review of Arctic drilling requirements, which is ongoing. We certainly need to understand what the National Energy Board is going to require, and until that review is concluded I really can't offer any comments on that.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

Thank you very much, Mr. Kamp.

We're going to try to do a three-minute round for each party. It would be helpful if the questions were not three minutes long, because we'd like our witnesses to be able to respond.

Mr. Cuzner.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thanks.

I appreciate the witnesses appearing today. It's been enlightening so far.

Could you share with us a little bit about the fiscal arrangement around it? When you enter into an agreement with ArcticNet, do you enter into it on a per-trip basis, on a project basis, or on annual basis? What kind of agreement is that? Is that negotiated? Does ArcticNet have a call for expressions of interest or proposals? Could you give me a little bit around the genesis of the project and the associated fees?

[Anita Perry]

Early in the days we would have identified ArcticNet as somebody capable of doing the work we needed. So we would just work through and get a proper agreement with ArcticNet, with the scope of work, properly put through our procurement supply chain division at BP. You would work it out to what works--what they can deliver for what we need. So it's very much a contract, and yes, a dollar figure of built-up cost.