Managing Industrial Spin-offs from Ocean Development: The Canadian Experience

Some of the more exciting hydrocarbon finds in Canada in recent years have been in frontier areas which are anything but hospitable. Commercial deposits of gas have been proven in the high Arctic Islands, and oil and gas shows from the Beaufort Sea operations hold a great deal of prom ise. In less frigid, but in many ways equally difficult, areas there are distinct deposits which may be on a scale unthought of until the last days of the 1970´s. The Venture D-23 well off Sable Island (N.S.) is being tested for the commercial significance of its gas deposits, and the Hibernia and Ben Nevis wells off Newfoundland are being tauted as sitting in major deposits of oil not un like some of the larger fields in the North Sea. Step-out wells currently being drilled will help to verify, or deflate somewhat, this supposition. In the meantime the stock markets and governments alike are responding with rapid surges, and occa sional declines in optimism. Despite the uncer tainty surrounding the Atlantic offshore play there seems to be a concensus that this Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) potential is of more di rect relevance in the short run to Canada´s energy situation than are the deposits in more northern latitudes. Simple transportation economics and fewer technological difficulties support this attitude.