Safety for B.C. drillers heats up

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Drilling activity in British Columbia's oil and gas industry is hot, but so is the debate over who will wind up responsible for regulating worker safety.
  The provincial government is kicking off a consultation process that could include transferring responsibility for the occupational safety of oil and gas workers to the Oil and Gas Commission from the Workers Compensation Board.
After uncovering the move B.C. Federation of Labour revealed the plan by releasing e-mails from a WCB official, said the proposal will water down worker safety.
  But Energy Minister Richard Neufeld came out swinging, claiming the initative is part of a plan to "enhance worker safety."
  "This is a dumb plan," said B.C. Fed president Jim Sinclair. "The plan that is hatched is to strip oil and gas workers of [Workers Compensation Board] protection by transferring the jurisdiction of the WCB to the Oil and Gas Commission, a government agency with no experience in this field that industry insiders are calling . . . dysfunctional."
 
Sinclair released a recent e-mail from WCB policy director Susan Hynes to board officials stating that "the premier has directed that the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission act as a single regulatory window for the oil-and-gas industry . . . responsible for such things as occupational health and safety."
 Hynes goes on to advise that Victoria had hired "three external law firms" to write up new regulations that "would supercede the Workers Compensation Act" and be in place by summer 2005.
 
Sinclair also produced e-mails from oil-and-gas industry spokesmen attacking the plan, including one from Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors president Mike Doyle urging industry to address problems with the WCB.
  Neufeld -- noting that six oil-and-gas workers died last year while the WCB oversaw their operations -- reacted angrily to Sinclair's accusations.
"We're trying to find out, can we enhance worker safety and health in the oil-and-gas industry, and we're going to spend about a year trying to find out," he said.
 Sinclair is not buying it.
 
“This type of political direction based on blind ideology rather than scientific evidence should be rejected by the WCB," Sinclar said. "The Board should be spending its time counting the number of lives it can save and not the number of regulations it can cut."
  The issue continued to boil, just as the province's oil and gas sector is experiencing an all time high in drilling levels.
  A streamlined regulatory system in British Columbia is helping to drive a frenzy of new activity in the province's oil and gas industry, with new well approvals for the first two months hovering at record levels.

"There is a renewal of interest in the province," said Andrew Boland, managing director of research at Peters & Co. in Calgary. "Efforts by the new provincial government have helped push the drill bit into unexplored areas of the province more and more."
  But many in the industry fear that an increase in work could lead to an increase in worker injury and fatalities.
  “On one had it is a good trend,” says industry analyst Brent Copeland. “But if companies aren't prepared for the growth it can put stress on the workforce. There is a shortage of workers now. They can't move too fast or there will be more risk,” he said.
  In the first two months of the year, British Columbia's Oil & Gas Commission issued a record 256 well approvals, up more than 50% from 2002.
"We see B.C.'s conventional reserves driving some pretty substantial growth rates," said Roland George, a senior partner at Purvin & Gurtz Inc., an energy consulting firm with offices world wide.

According to analysts, the new drilling activity has a lot to do with B.C.'s Liberal government's efforts to strip layers regulation from the oil and gas industry.
  "The situation has improved dramatically. The old regime put up so many roadblocks that it just about became impossible for companies to go in there to explore. There were too many constraints, too much red tape," Mr. George said.
  "Right now, B.C. is miles ahead in terms of its legislation [governing the oil and gas industry] than many other provinces."
 
The exploration is primarily taking place in the northeast of the province, around the region of the Ladyfern discovery, one of the biggest natural gas plays in North America.
"There is significant potential for new wells in the region," said Boland, adding that much of it is still relatively unexplored.WSN