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An Industry Struggles to Be Born Offshore Of AnAn industryindustry strugglesstruggles toto bebe bornborn offshoreoffshore ofof BritishBritish ColumbiaColumbia James Haggart Tony Fogarassy FTER THE ELECTION Of the four prospective Fogarassy of the Vancouver resources foreshadows a in May 2001 of a busi- B.C. offshore sedimentary law firm Clark, Wilson, sum- lengthy and complex ness-friendly Liberal basins, the north coast marizes a trilogy of issues process leading to an initial Agovernment in Queen Charlotte Basin (QCB) likely to define the creation exploration program. British Columbia, hydro- stands out. It provides a and implementation of an Some history needs to be carbon exploration off the touchstone for a variety of offshore exploration regime understood. The Queen west coast rose to the top geological, legal and policy in B.C.: environmental law, Charlotte Basin region is the of the provincial agenda issues. All intersect spatially jurisdiction and ownership of most attractive offshore with a stated goal of activ- and temporally, resulting in a oil and gas, and the role of basin of western Canada. ity under way by 2010. mix that, if addressed suc- First Nations. The area contains the land- There have been 30 years cessfully, may be a template No absolute determination masses of Queen Charlotte of attempts by tenure for other B.C. coastal basins. of the resource potential of Islands (QCI) and northern holders, governments and What follows are two arti- the QCB nor resolution of a Vancouver Island (NVI), as local communities to lift cles written by professionals legal issue or matter will all well as the adjoining interior federal and B.C. moratoria with first-hand knowledge of by itself make petroleum continental shelf areas of and to achieve consensus the B.C. offshore. The first, exploration happen. Frontier Dixon Entrance, Hecate on the key exploration by Dr. Jim Haggart of the geology and the interlocking Strait, and Queen Charlotte and development issues Geological Survey of nature of environmental Sound. Government assess- of environment, owner- Canada, reviews the geology issues, First Nations support ments suggest that the basin ship and administration of and hydrocarbon potential of or lack thereof, and the uncer- holds an estimated 9.8 bil- oil and gas and the role of the Queen Charlotte Basin. tainty of jurisdiction and lion barrels of oil and 25.9 First Nations. In the second article Tony ownership of QCB offshore trillion cubic feet of gas. 14 OILWEEK / DECEMBER 1 2003 PHOTO: JOEYPHOTO: PODLUBNY Most of the region is Soon after the Shell produced what is to this day First Nations and industry. underlain by continental drilling program, a suite of the key report of B.C. off- At the time of this writing, shelf and varies from quite federal and provincial legal shore hydrocarbon the federal government had shallow depths in the Hecate and administrative moratoria exploration. However, the established various panels Strait region (typically less were placed on offshore Exxon Valdez tanker and to review scientific, techni- than 60 metres), to about 450 exploration. In the late 1980s Nestucca barge spills in cal, and related issues as metres in the western Queen the Geological Survey of 1989 effectively scuttled gov- part of its deliberations on Charlotte Sound area. The Canada carried out a map- ernment interest, placing the whether to lift its offshore region is subject to seismic ping initiative under the offshore in abeyance until moratorium. risk, and the open-ocean set- auspices of the Frontier the late 1990s. No resolution of a particu- ting allows periodic storms Geoscience Program (FGP) Pressed by aggressive lar issue or matter will alone of significant intensity. in concert with renewed lobbying from Prince catalyze B.C. offshore petro- Nine onshore exploration interest by tenure holders Rupert businesses, the for- leum exploration. The wells tested the QCB between Shell and Chevron. The late mer NDP government of interlocking nature of envi- 1913 and 1971. Shell Canada 1980s and early 1990s publi- B.C. commenced science ronmental issues, First drilled eight wells in Hecate cations of FGP researchers reviews and public consul- Nations support, or lack Strait and Queen Charlotte continued to refine the geol- tations. The current B.C. thereof, and the uncertainty Sound between 1965 and ogy and hydrocarbon Liberal government moved of jurisdiction and ownership 1969. The 50 or more oil, tar potential of the QCB. the exploration agenda of QCB offshore resources and natural gas seeps on With renewed interest in along and initiated contact foreshadow a lengthy and Queen Charlotte Islands likely the 1980s, a federal environ- with the federal govern- complex process leading to enticed early explorationists. mental assessment panel ment, local communities, exploration. ■ OILWEEK / DECEMBER 1 2003 15 Beneath gorgeous seascapes and islands, enticing geology By JAMES W. HAGGART—Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Division BASIN STRATIGRAPHY Upper Triassic Karmutsen likely experienced relatively To date, principal Formation, a four-kilometre continuous sedimentation exploration interest in (13,120-feet) thick and during much of Cretaceous the west coast Canadian widespread succession of time. However, the eastern offshore has focused on island-arc pillow basalts, part of the islands and the the Tertiary Queen volcanic flows, and inter- adjacent Hecate Strait area Charlotte basin, a clas- stratified shales and reefal were mostly a highland for tic-dominated succession limestones. None of the much of that interval, subject that formed in a strike- exploratory wells penetrat- to marine deposition for only slip or rifted margin ed any of these basement short intervals at times of setting. This basin lies in rocks. The Karmutsen higher sea-level. the offshore region roughly basalts are conformably Tertiary rocks in the region between Queen Charlotte overlain by a widely-distrib- comprise the Queen Islands, northern uted Upper Triassic to Charlotte basin. On northern Vancouver Island and the Lower Jurassic sedimentary Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia main- sequence which exceeds Neogene volcanic rocks of land (Figure 1). 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) in the Masset Formation are In contrast, the some- thickness and consists widespread, and intertongue what more widely- mainly of platform carbon- on the east with clastic strata distributed Mesozoic ates, organic-rich shale, of the Skonun Formation, rocks of the region com- sandstone, siltstone, and concentrated in the offshore prise an older basinal tuff deposited in shelf to region and forming most of sequence tectonically dis- slope environments. These the Queen Charlotte basin tinct from the younger strata are unconformably fill. The Skonun consists Queen Charlotte basin overlain by the approxi- largely of poorly consolidated succession, termed mately 800-metre feldspatholithic sandstone, the Hecate basin. (2,625-feet) thick succes- mudstone, minor coal, and Figure 2 Hecate basin rocks crop sion of Middle Jurassic arc interstratified volcanic rocks. out on central and east- volcanics and associated In the offshore, this succes- ern Queen Charlotte epiclastic strata of the sion reaches approximately Islands and northern Yakoun and Moresby six kilometres (19,680 feet) Vancouver Island, groups. These rocks reflect in thickness and consists of and are inferred to onset of volcanism, possibly an upper, Miocene-Pliocene underlie much of associated with develop- package of interstratified the Tertiary Queen ment of a subduction zone sandstone and shale up to Charlotte basin, regime; associated sedimen- 4,500 metres (14,760 feet) especially in the tary basins were typically thick and a lower, 1,500- western part of small and restricted. metre (4,920-feet) thick Hecate Strait and In contrast, the Cretaceous package of Eocene-Miocene Queen Charlotte package is widespread across volcanic rocks and sand- Sound. the region and consists of up stone, correlated in part with Figure 2 sum- to 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) the onshore Masset marizes the of strata of variable lithology, Formation. Figure 1 geological succes- primarily coarse- to fine- SOURCE ROCKS sion of the Queen grained clastics and minor Occurrences of oil and tar Charlotte Islands volcanics. The Cretaceous seeps are well known on and provides an rocks are typically lithic Queen Charlotte Islands and overview of both wackes, but locally include dead oil has been noted on the Hecate and subarkoses and even arenites. northern Vancouver Island. Queen Charlotte These shallow-water, princi- Oil stains in Neogene rocks in basinal succes- pally shelf-depth strata are one of the Hecate Strait wells, sions, as well as oriented in widespread and as well as many of the older, underly- linear facies belts, reflecting onshore seeps, are sourced ing rocks. sedimentation in a fore-arc from Upper Triassic and Economic setting west of an active mag- Lower Jurassic kerogen. Types basement to matic arc. The western part II and I kerogen predominate both basinal of the Queen Charlotte in the Upper Triassic and successions Islands region, as well as the Lower Jurassic strata on is the Queen Charlotte Sound area, Queen Charlotte Islands (Sandilands and Whiteaves good permeability. formations), which locally Cretaceous strata persist lat- contain up to 11 per cent erally for many tens of TOC, and these rocks are kilometres on Queen considered to be the principal Charlotte Islands and, locally, oil source in the region. directly overlie the Tr-J In contrast, the uppermost source package. This facies is Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous typically thin onshore, but succession has a relatively both thickness and porosity low source-rock potential, of the unit increase to the containing Type III organic southeast across the islands matter, usually in small and towards the offshore. amounts and with TOC val- Neogene volcanic strata of ues around one per cent or the Masset Formation are less, although locally reach- widespread both onshore and ing 5.3 per cent. in the offshore and form an Tertiary strata have a poor effective hydrocarbon seal.
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