Southwestern Energy

Public opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick, Canada

In 2003, shale gas was discovered in New Brunswick, Canada. In March 2010, Southwestern successfully bid for exclusive licenses from the Department of Natural Resources of New Brunswick to conduct an exploration program.^[1] In 2010, Corridor Resources, in partnership with Apache Resources, which operated in the McCully Field play, announced that "it found more natural gas in place in southern New Brunswick than is available in all of western Canada's proven reserves." In July 2011, Tom Alexander, Southwestern's general manager for New Brunswick, assured residents that the company was only exploring, not drilling using hydraulic fracturing. Seismic equipment owned by Southwestern was vandalized in an isolated work camp in Cumberland Bay. In August 2011, protests against hydraulic fracturing were held in Fredericton, Sussex, Hampton, Norton and Rexton, New Brunswick. Local residents were "concerned that the seismic testing could lead to hydro-fracking in their communities" and that the fracking would "harm their air and water quality." According to Ralph Carr, the mayor of Sussex, New Brunswick, by December 2011, Southwestern and Apache, had "announced their intentions to aggressively search for gas in the deep shale deposits that lay beneath us." Carr argued that controversy about shale gas development in New Brunswick was partially fueled by media attention, when Calgary-based Windsor Energy Inc. conducted seismic testing within the town boundaries, before Sussex town council had given official permission. Carr argued against an outright ban on shale gas production but admitted that, "[m]issteps and mistakes by some companies involved with shale gas production have caused environmental damage and tarnished the image of the industry as a whole." In early August 2011, 40 people from Penniac, Taymouth, Stanley, Rogersville and several First Nations blocked a road north of Stanley, stopping Southwestern Resources Canada trucks used in seismic testing. There was a blockade on New Brunswick Route 134 in Mi’kmaq territory in New Brunswick. On October 3, 2013, the Court of Queen's Bench in New Brunswick granted Southwestern an injunction to end the protests of the Elsipogtog First Nation. However, the protesters were undeterred, and on October 17, they blocked the highway and set several police cars on fire. The situation "exploded in violence, sending dozens of people to jail and reducing five police cars to smouldering ruins". The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said "more than 40 protesters were arrested for various offences including firearms offences, uttering threats, intimidation, mischief and for refusing to abide by a court injunction". In 2015, the provincial government in New Brunswick imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}