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National regulator expects full disclosure of fracking fluid New National Energy Board requirements provide some clarity on fracking fluid disclosure
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 23, 2013
NWT/NUNAVUT
Companies wanting the National Energy Board (NEB) approval to use hydraulic fracturing in the North are expected to disclose chemicals they use, either before or shortly after highly-pressurized fracture fluids are put into the ground, according to new filing requirements released by the NEB on Sept. 12.
Gaétan Caron, chair and CEO of the National Energy Board, addresses a Yellowknife crowd during the Prospects North conference on Sept. 11. The NEB released new Filing Requirements for Onshore Drilling Operations Involving Hydraulic Fracturing on Sept. 12. The guidelines aim to address concerns of Northern residents over hydraulic fracturing in the North. - Pat Kane Photo
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The Filing Requirements for Onshore Drilling Operations Involving Hydraulic Fracturing was created by the NEB after officials travelled to Northern communities to hear what Northerners thought of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.
“The Board has heard the concerns of Canadians and is committed to continually improving the safety of hydraulic fracturing in Canada,” stated Gaétan Caron, chair and CEO of the NEB in a press release accompanying the new requirements. “One of the ways the Board does this is by clearly communicating what it requires of regulated companies for hydraulic fracturing and holding those companies accountable.”
This accountability includes making it necessary for companies to fully disclose to the NEB what chemicals they expect to use before a project is approved, and update that information with a list indicating the amount of chemicals used shortly after a frack is complete.
Whether or not a company is willing to disclose this information to the public must be indicated in their application to the board – something all companies currently operating in the Central Mackenzie Valley have indicated they are prepared to do, according to NEB spokesperson Rebecca Taylor.
“In the application, a company has to indicate whether they're willing to publicly disclose the chemical composition of what's in their hydraulic fracturing fluid,” said Taylor. “The board has made it clear that that's actually an expectation – we would expect them to disclose that to the public.
As an independent federal agency tasked with safeguarding public health and the environment for onshore oil and gas drilling and production in the North, the NEB works with the NWT's regulatory boards on approving oil and gas exploration and production projects.
The territory's first horizontal fracking program, for two exploratory wells owned and operated by ConocoPhillips Canada, received approval from the Sahtu Land and Water Board last June, however the NEB has yet to put their stamp of approval on the project. The company's application to the NEB needs to be approved before the project can go ahead this winter.
Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya is supportive of the two test wells.
"I'm supportive of the exploration phase they're in right now,” he said. “This is the testing period for the people of the Sahtu."
Economic benefits
Earlier this month, an industry-funded report released by IHS CERA made national headlines in the U.S. It states unconventional oil and gas production (fracking) supported 2.1 million jobs in the U.S. In 2012, increased disposable income by an average of $1,200 per household and contributed $283 billion to the American GDP.
These are exactly the kind of benefits Yakeleya wants for his region, which is why he supports the development of the Canol shale oil play.
“In the Sahtu, we want to be a contributor to the North – we're tired of getting hand outs, of relying on the government for food, for clothing, living in government houses,” he said. “We have an opportunity now and that opportunity is fracking."
Currently, just over half – 54 per cent – of the Sahtu's work force is unemployed, compared to Yellowknife where 80 per cent of people are working, he said.
“Here's our opportunity. If we do it properly, and we can do fracking responsibly, and at the same time be reaping the benefits of oil and gas exploration, and maybe production, we can also be the economic driver in the Northwest Territories and even in Canada,” said Yakeleya.
“We need to set this up for our future, for our children. This is the new trap line for our young people. This is where they're going to make the money. In order to get there, we need to be educated, sober and skilled and allow the structures that we've set up to take a look at these issues.”
Yakeleya will be part of a delegation of territorial ministers, Sahtu leaders and MLAs who are travelling to the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4 to view the impacts of large-scale productions using fracking first hand.
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