Offshore Petroleum Politics
The extraction of oil and gas from offshore continental shelves represents one of the most dynamic sectors of global petroleum development. It is also one of the most complex. Atlantic Canada is no exception and the history of Scotian Basin petroleum over the past half century reveals a fascinating series of political challenges, accommodations, and settlements.
Peter Clancy’s comprehensive analysis of petroleum politics in Nova Scotia demonstrates the complex intergovernmental and intercorporate relationships, ecological concerns, and Aboriginal interests that have complicated offshore development. Drawing on primary documents, archival sources, and informant interviews, he addresses themes of institutional adaptation and rigidity, “basin development” as a policy challenge, the strong and weak characteristics of the offshore state, and the shifting shapes of the offshore polity.
This informative study of petroleum politics in the Scotian Basin reveals the complex interplay of regulation and risk as industry, federal, and provincial authorities strive to develop Canada's Atlantic offshore oil and gas resources.
This in-depth analysis will be appreciated by students and scholars interested in the political economy of natural resources, intergovernmental relations, industry policy and regional development, business and government relations, and Aboriginal rights issues, as well as professionals, politicians, and policymakers with a stake in the oil and gas sector.
An impressive addition to the academic literature on the politics and policy of the Canadian oil and gas industry. Peter Clancy has written a comprehensive, thoughtful, and insightful case study of the Nova Scotia offshore natural gas industry. He weaves together the entire story of this sector – from exploration and discovery to shut-down – and in the process sets a very high standard for further study of the Canadian oil patch.
1 Introduction
Part 1: The Political Economy of Offshore Petroleum
2 The Politics of Offshore Basin Development
Part 2: Parameters of the Offshore State
3 The Political Construction of Administrative Institutions
4 The CNSOPB in Action: Regulatory Politics in Multiple Dimensions
5 The Provincial State and the Entrepreneurial Impulse: NSRL
Part 3: Case Studies in the Offshore Petroleum Chain
6 Corridor Politics: Sable Gas Project Development
7 The Politics of Backward Linkage: Industrial Benefi ts
8 The Politics of Fiscal Entitlement: Offshore Revenues
9 The Onshore Politics of Natural Gas Distribution
10 The Liquefied Natural Gas Factor in Nova Scotia
11 Offshore Politics and the Aboriginal Challenge
12 Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
