Page 11 - NorthAmOil Week 03 2023

NorthAmOil POLICY NorthAmOil

British Columbia, First Nations

reach Montney deal

BRITISH THE Canadian province of British Columbia has land will be off-limits. Oil and gas activity is not
COLUMBIA announced a land, water and resource manage- limited on land that has already been disturbed.
ment agreement with the Blueberry River First The province and tribe will also jointly
Nations Indigenous group for the Montney shale manage land use, and the Blueberry River will
play. receive C CAD87.5mn ($65.3mn ) over the next
Development in the Montney can now three years and may benefit further from reve-
restart, but the rate at which land is used for new nue-sharing and BC royalties.
oil and gas wells will be about halved. The news was welcomed by industry, which The agreement
New well licences have been halted in BC has said it needed certainty going forward.
since June 2021, when the province’s supreme According to the British Columbia Oil and Gas requires a new
court agreed that the Blueberry River’s indige- Commission, only 319 gas well licences had
nous territory had been degraded by industrial been issued in the province since June 2021, planning set-up
activity such as shale development and forestry. compared with 552 in the same period before
Specifically, the court ruled that decades of the court’s decision. for future oil and
development on the Blueberry River’s 33,000 BC Premier David Eby said at the news con- gas development.
square km in northern BC had violated the ference: “This agreement does have an impact
tribe’s Treaty 8 rights. on oil and gas development in the north-east.”
“There’s no longer business as usual,” Chief He said the industry will have to innovate. “It’s
Judy Desjarlais of the Blueberry River said at a not a cap on production, it’s a cap on land distur-
press conference on January 18 after the agree- bance,” he continued.
ment was announced. “This agreement provides At the news conference, Petronas Energy
a clear pathway to get the hard work started on Canada’s CEO, Izwan Ismail, described the
healing and restoring the land, and start on the agreement as important and added: “This will
joint planning with strong criteria to protect ensure that the gas we deliver to the LNG Can-
ecosystems, wildlife habitat and old forests,” she ada project is responsibly produced right here in
added. BC, benefiting Blueberry River First Nations and
The agreement requires a new planning other First Nations in the entire province and
set-up for future oil and gas development, an country.” Petronas owns 25% of the LNG Can-
annual 7.50-km cap on new land that oil and gas ada export project, which is under construction
activity can disturb, while 6,500 square km of in Kitimat, on BC’s Pacific Coast.™

Week 03 19•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11