Marine Oil Spill Aspects of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project
Gerald Graham, Worldocean Consulting Ltd
NB The author of this Abstract is pleased to report that a paper on this topic will not be presented at the IOSC 2017 conference which begins in Long Beach, California on May 15, 2017, because of the proposed the Government of Canada moratorium on crude oil tankers on British Columbia's North Coast.
This paper examines the marine oil spill aspects of Enbridge's Northern Gateway project on the North and Central Coasts of British Columbia, Canada. The Northern Gateway project involves a 1,177 km-long pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta over the mountains to Kitimat, British Columbia. The pipeline would ship a number of petroleum products, including DilBit, which is a combination of bitumen and condensate. From a tank farm and tanker terminal located near Kitimat, in Douglas Channel, the product would be shipped by tankers of various classes and sizes to ports in the United States and the Far East. Along the British Columbia coast, the tankers would transit an area known as the Great Bear Rainforest, home to many Coastal First Nations as well as the Spirit Bear, aka Kermode Bear. The Northern Gateway project has been approved by the Government of Canada, with 209 conditions attached. These conditions include numerous requirements with respect to marine oil spill prevention and response, including tug escorts and the positioning of response depots along the tanker routes. Construction on the project was required to start by mid-2016. However, Enbridge, the Proponent of Northern Gateway, has applied to the relevant authorities for a three year delay in the required start time, i.e. to mid-2019. What makes the Northern Gateway project especially interesting is the fact that it is one of the first projects involving the shipment of bitumen in tankers along an ocean route. Thus, the paper will, inter alia, focus on the special characteristics of DilBit in saltwater, including whether it will float, become suspended in the water column and/or sink. The paper will also focus on the debate as to whether an effective response operation can be launched in respect of a DilBit marine oil spill. An important component of the paper will be the notion of risk- specifically, the likelihood of a marine oil spill occurring as a result of this project, as well as the potential consequences of such a spill. Risk was a major bone of contention during the project hearings. Thus, the question of how risk was defined and measured, as well as tolerance towards risk, will be examined in some detail. The paper will review both written and spoken testimony and evidence present during the course of the Northern Gateway hearings, including the Author's own report, which was submitted as Expert Testimony to the Panel which reviewed the project.