ARCHIVED – Meeting Summary – 16 May 2011

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Arctic Offshore Drilling Review

Information Meeting Summary

Date and Location
Date Location
Monday
16 May 2011
7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.		 Ingamo Hall
Inuvik, NT

Purpose: Phase 2 Information Meeting

Participants
Participants
Brian Chambers Northern Advisor, NEB
Bharat Dixit Technical Leader, Exploration and Production, NEB
Pamela Romanchuk Environmental Specialist, NEB
Susan Gudgeon Northern Coordinator, NEB

Presentation (NEB):

National Energy Board staff gave a presentation providing an overview of:

  • the Board's role in the North
  • the scope of the Arctic Offshore Drilling Review
  • what has occurred to date including stakeholder meetings and information filed
  • where the Review is now at
  • what is coming up
  • funding

Questions and Comments:

The following questions and comments were posed:

  • What has been presented sounds methodical and logical – why didn't they anticipate what happened in the Gulf?
  • No one has demonstrated any capacity to clean up a spill.
  • Whatever the best efforts are and taking lessons learned from the past mistakes – will that just have to be good enough?
  • After the Board has looked at and analyzed everything heard at these sessions and the Roundtable, will a list of best practices end up in the Report?
  • When will the reports commissioned by the NEB be available and are they on track?
  • Will the Report apply to the entire Arctic?
  • Is the NEB spending as much time in the eastern Arctic?
  • Will there be eastern Arctic folks attending the Inuvik Roundtable in September?
  • Is it no longer a question of if there is going to be drilling in the Beaufort, but when?
  • Where is the drilling going to be?
  • If Environmental Impact Screening Committee (EISC) sees the applications first and then it is referred to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, where does the NEB fit in?
  • Filing requirements sound like they are really more relevant to the later processes (subsequent to EISC, benefits plan approval, etc.) – people need a better understanding of how these processes fit together.
  • There are identified gaps in research – are there opportunities to add this to the filing requirements?
  • Recognizing that the NEB can't change regulations on its own, might it be recommending changes to regulations ($40 million financial liability) – this is a huge issue.
  • High level agenda for the Roundtable indicates that there will be experts presenting on different topics. If the Inuvialuit wanted to do a presentation (i.e.: ice conditions), would that be entertained?
  • Before the Arctic Offshore Drilling Review there was a process underway for Same Season Relief Wells. Will all the information the Board has for that process be pulling into the Review automatically or does that information have to be filed with the NEB again?
  • Can a content overview of responses to questions on same season relief wells be given?

Concluding remarks:

NEB staff are available to assist in:

  • completing registration forms for the Roundtable as well as funding applications; and
  • navigating through the information filed with the Board and contained on the website.

Copies of DVDs containing the information on the NEB Arctic Offshore Drilling Review website are available.

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