Mythbusters

Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes regarding the facts about tankers, particularly oil tankers, in Canadian waters. The single most significant type of cargo worldwide is crude oil, which alone accounts for roughly 30% of all goods transported by sea. However, we are not seeing enough of this cargo transportation in Canada as it is primarily being supplied by the Middle East, to top consumers of the United States, the European Union and Japan.

The East and the West

In Canada, 85% of oil tanker movements are occurring in Eastern Canada off the Atlantic Coast via six ports, with only 15% occurring in Western Canadian waters at Vancouver. The largest tankers that can transit Eastern Canadian waters are ULCC’s, the largest tankers in the world, which hold a capacity of up to 4 million barrels of oil. In the Port of Vancouver, the largest tankers allowed are Aframax vessels, which can hold approximately 850,000 barrels of oil. Interesting points to note are that tankers currently represent only about 2% of total ship traffic visiting the Port of Vancouver (out of 250 total vessels per month, about 5 are tankers). Additionally, of the approximately 43 million tonnes of oil transported in Western Canadian waters (compared to approx. 283 million tonnes in Eastern Canadian waters), 86% or 37 million tonnes actually consists of US traffic that is just travelling through Canadian waters, as both Seattle and Vancouver have to share the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Problems arise with both scenarios as much of the oil transported through Eastern Canada, is actually being imported from competing countries in the Middle East, Africa and South America to meet Eastern Canadian demands. In the West, not nearly enough capacity is reaching tide water to service Asia, whereby USA is now stepping in (see previous blog titled: “While Canada bickers, USA builds. Here’s how they’re taking over the global energy game.”). In both scenarios, the absurd lack of pipelines from the Canadian Prairies to our Eastern and Western ports is bottle-necking Canadian production and having drastic negative effects on the economy and well-being of its citizens.

Spills and Accidents - how big is this risk?

While protesters would like you to believe that any tankers threaten the livelihood of civilians, wildlife and nature, the instances of tanker accidents or spills is quite rare in Canadian waters, and has been steadily decreasing since the 1970s. In fact, 67% of ship-source oil spills in Canadian waters from 2003 to 2012 were between 100 and 1,000 litres, which is half the size of a hot tub. Of the larger spills (those 10,000 litres or greater), the vast majority, at roughly 78%, involved fuel oil rather than oil being carried as cargo, often involving smaller boat groundings (Clear Seas). This is largely due to the MANY safety regulations, robust ship design codes, enhanced emergency preparedness and response systems, and better self-regulation procedures that have been instituted to prevent damage to our environment from tanker spills.