(Date of speech: May 1, 2012.)
(Check against delivery.)
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for the invitation to join you this morning.
I am in Houston this week in my capacity as the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment for Canada’s Northwest Territories. During my time here, I want to highlight our tremendous petroleum potential and answer any questions you may have. But before I get into that, I would like to give you a bit of background on the Territory for those of you who may be unfamiliar with it.
My home Territory – commonly abbreviated as “The NWT” – is a vast, rugged and sparsely populated part of Canada – located north of the 60th parallel and east of Alaska. Around this time of year, the midnight sun is beginning to return to our part of the world – and those ice roads that you hear so much about are in the process of being transformed back into beautiful pristine lakes and rivers.
The area of Canada’s Northwest Territories is nearly 520 thousand square miles - which is a region approximately twice the size of Texas but a bit smaller than Alaska. Our population – in total - is a little over 43,000. That is roughly 10,000 people shy of Galveston Island.
One thing we both have in common is a substantial resource base - the landscape of the Northwest Territories is the natural extension of the rich resource base that is Western Canada. Within our borders we have an abundance of economically valuable metals like: gold, uranium, tungsten, lead, silver, zinc and rare earth minerals.
Our regions are also both home to major river deltas that have, over time, deposited millions and millions of tons of sediment into our oceans. These deposits have, in turn, given us untold resource wealth.
For us the next frontier is offshore – beneath the waters of the Beaufort Sea – where we are focusing more and more on our robust offshore energy reserves. Within its territorial waters, the Northwest Territories has resources in the Beaufort Sea which extends to the North Pole – an area that has enormous potential to supply both natural gas and oil to North America.
Based on geological analysis by both the U.S. Geological Survey and our own advisors, the Arctic waters off the Northwest Territories have the oil potential to rival the Gulf of Mexico.
It is estimated that the area north of the Arctic Circle has ninety billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil, over 1,600 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, and forty-four billion barrels of recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum.
We are now seeing new activity in this area with Chevron gathering seismic data this summer and Exxon making plans for exploration drilling in the next few years.
Our challenge as a government is to ensure these resources are developed in a manner that brings economic benefits to our residents while ensuring the protection of the environment on which so many of our people still depend for their livelihood. We must also be cognizant of the risks associated with drilling in waters hundreds of metres deep, as well as issues surrounding the formation of thick sea ice present for several months of the year.
All of us here today know all too well the devastating impact both environmentally and economically that a single incident can have.
The National Energy Board recently completed a review to help us learn how best to regulate our offshore activity. This review provided us with insight about the challenges of Arctic exploration and development.
A key requirement of the Offshore Review was is that applicants who want to drill in the Arctic offshore will need to make public their safety plans, contingency plans, emergency response plans, and their environmental protection plans.
If the company cannot provide these to the satisfaction of the NEB, they will not be allowed to drill.
We are confident with the work the National Energy Board has been doing, and support the work they will continue to do – we are also pleased with the extensive engagement with northerners that took place to produce the Arctic Review.
My government will continue to work with industry and the regulatory authorities to help ensure the successful, long-term development of our Arctic reserves. We will also encourage joint efforts to work together should any incident occur in Alaskan waters or our own.
Our offshore oil reserves will quickly find their place in the market and will become, along with Canada’s bitumen, vast new shale oil deposits, and natural gas supplied from the Mackenzie Gas Project, become yet another source of dependable energy from a friendly neighbour for this continent’s energy needs.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to any questions you may have.