Oil pollution-control companies in B.C. are poised to participate in a multibillion- dollar bonanza if an existing moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling is removed.

“This will be a gold-plated opportunity for companies with the knowledge and the equipment,” says Lindsay Meredith, a professor of economics and marketing at Simon Fraser University. “Given the demands in B.C. by the electorate for social programs, drilling for natural gas and oil is a given.”

A report for the federal government estimates the value of offshore oil and gas could be as high as $110 billion. The B.C. government has requested that Ottawa remove the more than 30- year-old moratorium.

Rick Clark, general manager of Aqua-Guard Spill Response Inc. of Vancouver, says B.C. companies have developed a world-wide reputation for being knowledgeable and in the vanguard of the latest technological innovations.

Photo courtesy of Burrard Clean Operations
Burrard Clean vessels tow an oil-spill containment boom into position during an exercise at the B.C. port of Prince Rupert.

Clark says his company is continuing to focus on international opportunities, but will be ready to respond if the moratorium is lifted.

Many oil spill-control companies in B.C. were forced to look internationally for business, says SFU’s Meredith, because under the NDP government “there were precious few business opportunities available to companies in this specialized area.”

“There was no justification for companies to develop here in B.C. It was pretty tough slogging under the NDP.”

Meredith warns companies operating in B.C. “better realize that environmentalism is a word with a big E here. A lot of the companies have learned that the hard way.”

He is also convinced that companies with the ability to deal with serious oil spills will eventually be called upon. “The weather off the coast of northern Vancouver Island is some of the nastiest in the world, and that means only one thing. There will be some kind of oil spills or natural disasters . . . so companies with the knowledge and the equipment will be in great demand.”

Aqua-Guard’s Clark says in the last three to five years, the private company’s specialty has been designing equipment for offshore situations.

The company’s equipment consists of a complete package, including containment booms and oil-skimming equipment that is able to handle rough environments. “There is nobody in Canada who can do that, and we are one of the leading companies in the world,” he says.

“A lot of things we’ve developed have come from our customers saying, ‘This is our situation and what can you do for us?’ That’s how a lot of the products have been developed.”

Aqua-Guard is one of a few small companies worldwide that serve the oil-pollution sector. “There are really no big players in the business,” Clark says. “The average company does about $15 to $20 million in sales a year and the whole industry worldwide is worth about a couple of hundred million dollars.”

Another operation confident it can deal with oil spills is Burrard Clean Operations, a consortium representing companies that use oil and gas, whether it be the BC Ferries fleet or a remote fishing camp.

The partnership has developed a global reputation for its approach, says president and general manager Kevin Gardner. “We have people from all parts of the world coming to visit us to see how we conduct our business,” he says, including recent delegations from Taiwan, Brazil and Albania.

Four oil refineries and one pipeline company formed Burrard in 1976. Initially, it was a collective set up to respond to oil spills in Burrard Inlet, the area where ships come in to load and unload their cargo.

But eventually the federal government, through legislation, required that all companies that ship or receive oil by water pay a yearly membership fee, as well as a fee that is assessed when bulk oil cargo is transferred to an oil- handling facility.

Burrard is funded through these fees, and now has a membership of 1,700 companies and organizations. It has 19 vessels at its disposal, ranging from small skiffs to the largest oil-skimming vessels in Canada.

The consortium operates around the clock, ready to deploy its manpower and specialized equipment in the case of any oil spill.

Such a high level of readiness comes at a cost – Gardner notes the capital replacement value of its equipment is upward of $25 million.

The consortium has mapped out the entire B.C. coast, marking the sensitivities of individual areas, whether they be economic, environmental or people- oriented, and drafting specific response plans in case of an oil spill.

“B.C. definitely is on the leading edge of oil containment and has been for over 30 years,” says Gardner.

Burrard regularly creates mock oil spills and assesses the organization’s response, holding a major exercise every three years that considers a 10,000-tonne oilspill.

But not everyone agrees the moratorium will be lifted.

By mid-November the federal government is expected to release a report that will look at the concept of offshore drilling, says Ian Bruce, project manager of the oil and gas team for the David Suzuki Foundation.

Based on public hearings held in May of this year by the federal government, “it is clear the majority of British Columbians want the offshore drilling moratorium to stay in place,” Bruce says.

Bruce points to the hazards of offshore resource development, noting that if there were a major offshore oil spill in B.C ,“there is no way it could be contained. It would take cleanup crews at least a day to get to the area and a spill would reach the coastline of B.C. before they got there.”

A major oil spill would be a disaster for B.C., Bruce added, as the ocean’s current would act like a washing machine, churning the spill around instead of dispersing the oil.

Bruce noted that tourism is B.C.’s No. 1 industry and the province needs to look at “what are the economic benefits and consequences of opening up offshore oil and gas resources.”

(George Froehlich can be reached at george@businessedge.ca)