Using Strategic Environmental Assessments to Guide Oil and Gas Exploration Decisions: Applying Lessons Learned from Atlantic Canada to the Beaufort Sea

Strategic Environmental Assessments have been used on the Atlantic Coast of Canada to inform oil and gas exploration decisions. Both the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia offshore petroleum boards have about a decade of experience with strategic environmental assessments. In the Beaufort Sea, there is no such process currently in place to guide decisions about oil and gas exploration. In the wake of the Deep Horizon spill in the US, this article considers the lessons learned from the Atlantic Canada experience, and makes recommendations for the design of an oil and gas strategic environmental assessment process for exploration in the Beaufort Sea