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Atlantic Canada

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AccountabilityMay 27, 20267 min read
BC's Tanker Ban: Canadian Tankers Banned. Alaskan Tankers Still Pass. Saudi Oil Still Lands in New Brunswick.
The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act (Bill C-48), passed by Parliament in June 2019, bans crude oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes from stopping, loading, or unloading at ports along the northern coast of British Columbia — specifically the waters from the northern tip of Vancouver Island (50°28′N) to the Alaska border. The geography it covers includes Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance, and the waters surrounding Haida Gwaii. The Act killed the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline (Enbridge) and the Eagle Spirit pipeline (an Indigenous-led proposal led by 35 First Nations along the proposed route). It does not apply to tankers below the 12,500-tonne threshold (smaller fuel deliveries to coastal communities are exempt) and it does not apply to U.S. tankers transiting between Alaska and the continental United States. Those U.S. tankers operate under the 1985 voluntary Tanker Exclusion Zone (TEZ), which keeps them offshore from BC's coast but allows them to pass. In Atlantic Canada, the situation is the inverse: the largest refinery in Canada — Irving Oil's 320,000-barrel-per-day facility in Saint John, New Brunswick — runs in part on imported crude, with Saudi Arabia historically supplying between 63,000 and 127,000 barrels per day. Canada imports approximately 10.7% of its crude oil supply from Saudi Arabia (2023), with additional volumes from the United States, Nigeria, and other suppliers. The Alberta-to-New-Brunswick pipeline that would have replaced much of this — the 4,500 km, 1.1 million bpd Energy East project — was cancelled by TransCanada in October 2017, citing regulatory delays and changed market conditions. The pieces are connected: Canada has constrained where Canadian oil can move within its own borders, while continuing to import equivalent oil from foreign suppliers via tankers that, for the most part, are not Canadian-flagged.

BC's Tanker Ban: Canadian Tankers Banned. Alaskan Tankers Still Pass. Saudi Oil Still Lands in New Brunswick.

The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act (Bill C-48), passed by Parliament in June 2019, bans crude oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes from stopping, loading, or unloading at ports along the northern coast of British Columbia — specifically the waters from the northern tip of Vancouver Island (50°28′N) to the Alaska border. The geography it covers includes Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance, and the waters surrounding Haida Gwaii. The Act killed the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline (Enbridge) and the Eagle Spirit pipeline (an Indigenous-led proposal led by 35 First Nations along the proposed route). It does not apply to tankers below the 12,500-tonne threshold (smaller fuel deliveries to coastal communities are exempt) and it does not apply to U.S. tankers transiting between Alaska and the continental United States. Those U.S. tankers operate under the 1985 voluntary Tanker Exclusion Zone (TEZ), which keeps them offshore from BC's coast but allows them to pass. In Atlantic Canada, the situation is the inverse: the largest refinery in Canada — Irving Oil's 320,000-barrel-per-day facility in Saint John, New Brunswick — runs in part on imported crude, with Saudi Arabia historically supplying between 63,000 and 127,000 barrels per day. Canada imports approximately 10.7% of its crude oil supply from Saudi Arabia (2023), with additional volumes from the United States, Nigeria, and other suppliers. The Alberta-to-New-Brunswick pipeline that would have replaced much of this — the 4,500 km, 1.1 million bpd Energy East project — was cancelled by TransCanada in October 2017, citing regulatory delays and changed market conditions. The pieces are connected: Canada has constrained where Canadian oil can move within its own borders, while continuing to import equivalent oil from foreign suppliers via tankers that, for the most part, are not Canadian-flagged.