Oil Exploration on Anticosti Island

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Recommended: Ethical issues related to deep oil drilling

Since 2001, Hydro-Quebec were doing oil exploration on Anticosti Island.Seven years later, they had found nothing. In 2008, Petrolia, a private petroleum producer, sign an agreement with Hydro-Quebec to continue the oil exploration and about the money that Quebec will receive if they find oil. Petrolia discovered for $75 billion of petroleum and Quebec will receive a small amount of $2.3 billion. Petrolia has the right to extract oil everywhere on the island except in the two national parks. Should we take the risk to break a fragile and unique ecosystem in order to gain money on a short-term? To answer this ethical question, we will look at positive effects and negative effects of extracting oil from different regions that had decided to go into the oil industry. Those regions are closely related to our case and we will finish off with the possible solutions that are offers to Anticosti.
First, we will look at the positive effects of extracting oil on Anticosti Island. This discovery will have a positive impact on the economy of the province of Quebec. In many cases, we can clearly see that the economy become wealthy after the extraction of petroleum. For example: “In 1997, the Canadian petroleum industry supplied about $15 billion worth of crude oil, natural gases, natural gas liquids and refined oil products to meet our domestic energy and petrochemical needs. Without the industry, we would have had spend at least this much on imported supplies. In addition, we received $25 billion in revenues for petroleum exports in 1997.This $40-billion boost to the economy turned a potential $16-billion trade deficit into a $24-billion trade surplus” (Bott, 1999, p. 89). There is another example of a wealthy economy during the oil explorati...

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...al disaster? Récupéré sur Financial Post: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/23/northern-promise-anticosti-untapped-treasure-or-natural-disaster/
Robillard, A. (2013, November 26). Details released for oil-exploration deal on Anticosti island. Récupéré sur Financial Post: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/06/details-released-for-oil-exploration-deal-on-anticosti-island/?__lsa=1158-1d11
S.Uhler, R. (1986). The Potential Supply Of Crude Oil And Natural Gas Reserves In The Alberta Basin . Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre Supply and Services Canada.
Scarlett, M. (1977). Consequences of offshore oil and gas-Norway,Scotland, and Newfoundland. St. John's: Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Unknown. (2013, November 25). Anticosti Island,Quebec. Récupéré sur Corridor Resouces Inc.: http://www.corridor.ca/oil-gas-exploration/anticosti-island.html

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