The largest spill ever off Canada’s East Coast has renewed calls for improved oversight of the offshore oil industry.

On Friday, an estimated 250,000 litres of crude oil was dumped into the sea off Newfoundland, the result of a weak link on a sub-sea flowline on the SeaRose floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Located about 350 kilometres from St. John’s in the White Rose oilfield, the vessel faced strong winds and massive waves after a storm in the area the day before.

Like other platforms in the area, the SeaRose had stopped production during the storm, but was trying to resume operations when the spill occurred.



The sea remained rough for days, preventing any effort to contain the spill, or to determine its size and if was contained. A survey by a remote-operated vehicle yesterday confirmed it was a so-called “batch spill,” not one that’s ongoing.

The questions flying in Newfoundland and Labrador’s House of Assembly now focus on what protocols were in place, why one operator would resume production when others didn’t, and whether oversight of the industry needs to be revisited.

“The Terra Nova FPSO did not attempt to reconnect in high seas, yet the SeaRose did,” Tory MHA Keith Hutchings said yesterday. “I ask the minister: Has the C-NLOPB (Canada- Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board) explained the different approach?”

The Terra Nova is an FPSO operated by Suncor Energy that did not attempt to resume production.



Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady said she’s asked the board under whose direction and authority the restart would happen. Ultimately, that’s determined by safety and environmental plans Husky Energy would have drafted and submitted to the board before being authorized to operate.

Coady said the investigation will cover “whether or not the right protocols were followed, and whether or not there should be different protocols,” adding, “we’re also monitoring the response by C-NLOPB.”

Asked whether the regulator or the company sets those rules, Scott Tessier, chair and CEO of the C-NLOPB, said it’s “a little bit of both.” The board would have issued the operations authorization to Husky, but that would have hinged on the company submitting its safety and environmental plans.

“Those plans make it the operator’s responsibility to decide when they need to shut (down), when it’s safe to restart, and other operational decisions that are made in the course of their business,” he said. “The board provides regulatory oversight, but we don’t operate the facilities. It’s their responsibility to operate safely, but they also have the liability when they don’t.

“The investigation will determine if they followed their environmental and safety plans, and what led that oil to end up in the ocean — which is unacceptable to anyone.”

But given the obvious consequences now floating in the sea, are some regulatory standards for operating in different types and severity of weather not warranted?

Tessier said that’s a “legitimate point of discussion,” and noted the regulatory structure they operate under is “not an unusual model in the petroleum industry.”

Some say that’s exactly the problem.

“What we’re experiencing right now is the outcome of a failed regulatory regime,” says Prof. Bill Montevecchi, a seabird biologist at Memorial University.

“It’s a corrupted system. It’s always been that way. This is the result of long-term, systematic, weak regulation, whereby a regulator is simply allowing oil companies (that are) liable for oil spills to self-regulate and self-report. That’s not what we expect of a regulator. Let’s call it what it is: It’s not a spill; bad practice created unnecessary oil pollution on the Grand Banks.”

He said attempts to restart oil production in 30-foot seas wasn’t safe for workers, and obviously wasn’t safe for the environment; it shouldn’t have happened. What he’s heard from offshore workers is that a floating platform like the SeaRose is “bobbing up and down like a cork” in such rough seas.

“The basic strategy for the oil company — and for the government as well, as we hear announcements for fast-tracking environment assessments — is that time is money. When you operate under that strategy, you just want to pump oil all the time,” Montevecchi said. “That’s the situation that exists, and that’s exactly why you can’t have self-regulation.”

He said there’s a built-in conflict of interest in the C-NLOPB’s mandate, given its responsibility for development, as well as safety and environment.

Since December 2010, the provincial NDP has repeatedly called for an independent offshore safety authority similar to what exists in Norway and Australia. NDP MHA Lorraine Michael told the House of Assembly that creating an independent body is the only recommendation from Justice Robert Wells’ Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry that hasn’t yet been implemented. The offshore crash of Cougar Helicopters Flight 91 in March 2009 killed 17 people.

“I ask the premier: Why does he continue to listen to the oil industry, and not the experts on safety and environmental protection?”

Provincial NDP Leader Gerry Rogers said they know self-regulation by industry doesn’t work — and “surely the premier knows that, too.” She pointed to the SeaRose’s near-miss of an iceberg last spring, and asked why, during the worst storm since the 1982 Ocean Ranger disaster, Husky saw fit to attempt to restart pumping in dangerous conditions.

“These incidents clearly show that Husky’s bottom line has been far more important to them than worker safety and environmental protection,” Rogers said.

“Will (the premier) begin negotiations with his federal counterparts to create an independent offshore safety and environmental authority with the power to ensure that oil companies place environmental and worker safety above profits?”

For now, the task at hand is getting the investigation done, said Premier Dwight Ball.

“We’ll then see why this happened and when it happened … but first and foremost, the minister and the department and the people at C-NLOPB, their primary concern today is making sure that safety is in place.”

On Monday, Ball told the House, “There’s an independent observer out there. This is not left to the corporation, this is not left to the company.” But Tessier said no one from the board is on the SeaRose yet. While someone did watch yesterday’s live ROV feed onshore, the focus at the moment is on the response to, not the investigation of, the spill. It’s unknown when investigators will be on board. Tessier said he’s “letting the investigation team form their plan.”

He also dismissed claims the board has an inherent conflict of interest.

“Sometimes there’s a tendency to conflate the regulations and their regulator,” Tessier said. “We get critiques that we’re too close. I reject that. The board administers the regulations that government develops. We don’t own the regulations. That’s the job and purview of (the federal and provincial) governments.”

He said the petroleum board is part of the International Regulators’ Forum, a group of offshore safety regulators, which Canada will chair this year, as well as the International Offshore Petroleum Environment Regulators.

“Having been at both of those tables, I can tell Canadians we are world-class; we are as good as anybody in the world,” Tessier said, noting the board also has a chief safety officer and a chief conservation officer with a “great deal of autonomy, authority and decision-making power under the Atlantic Accord Implementation Act.”

“There are different governance models, and everyone likes to compare us to Norway and the U.K. But a different model doesn’t eliminate the risk. If it was as easy as the stroke of the pen to change the model and reduce the risk, I’d be all for it.”

Once the investigation gets underway, Tessier said they’ll need to have “serious discussions” about decision-making and processes. Asked if the board can take away Husky’s authorization to operate, he said, “Oh yeah, 100 per cent. We issue it and we can rescind it. The track record matters in any enforcement matters. The track record is material to our assessment of the situation.”

The board is one of Canada’s two independent offshore authorities. As set out in the Atlantic Accord and the Atlantic Accord Implementation Acts, the offshore area has been under joint management for more than 30 years. Answering calls to establish an independent offshore safety and environmental authority doesn’t appear to be something the federal government is looking at.

“Canada has a robust regulatory system for all offshore oil and gas activities that prioritizes safety, protection of the environment and responsible management of our petroleum resources,” said Vanessa Adams, press secretary to federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi.



“The board’s mandate is to oversee responsible development in Newfoundland and Labrador, and that is exactly what we expect they will continue to do. We are confident the board will continue to exercise its oversight in the offshore area, including compliance and enforcement, and conducting audits and investigations as needed.”

For now, operations at the White Rose field are still suspended, pending an investigation and the green light from the board to resume, Husky said in a statement today. No additional oil has been detected at the surface by observation flights that continue to monitor the site.

Monitoring of wildlife continues as well, with Husky reporting 14 oiled seabirds have been found, with three recovered and transported to a wildlife rehabilitation centre.

Montevecchi said the number of birds affected will never be known, but it’s sure to be well over 14. He said that in 2004, when the Terra Nova had a spill, the oil company said there were no oiled birds, something the board repeated.

“A week later, when Environment Canada got out there, the estimates were 10,000, and possibly 100,000 birds,” he said.

“I can tell you now that every murre that breeds in Newfoundland, they’re on the Grand Banks. There’s well over a million of them right now. The other bird that’s vulnerable is this little dovekie auk. They’re on the Grand Banks in the millions right now, too.”

Within a week of the Terra Nova spill, Montevecchi and his students began finding oiled birds on the beaches of the island’s south coast. Tessier confirmed that in the Terra Nova case, more birds were found four and five days after the spill — which is the point where things are are now.

But “whether they get to land or not, we’re not going to see most of the birds that will die,” said Montevecchi.

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