A Canadian energy company offered a US$500,000 award on Tuesday for help in solving a series of bombings that have damaged a natural gas pipeline in Canada’s westernmost province, police and company officers said.
EnCana Corporation spokesman Mike Graham said the money was intended to “encourage anyone with information to help the police solve these crimes, stop any further attacks and help ensure the safety of the communities in and around Dawson Creek.”
Since October, four bombs have exploded along EnCana’s pipeline near Dawson Creek in northern British Columbia, damaging pipeline facilities.
Police called the sabotage campaign “increasingly violent” after the most recent bomb, on Jan. 4, blew up a shack housing a sour gas pipe near a family home.
The campaign and the response from police and industry highlight tensions over the oil and gas boom in northeastern British Columbia.
“Oil and gas is a new frontier industry,” Dawson Creek mayor Mike Bernier told reporters.
The prairie region has relied for generations on farming, forestry and tourism, and “with oil and gas starting to break in, you have people unsure how to take that,” he said.
The gas pipeline has been controversial in the remote rural area.
“Most area residents support oil and gas development because of many good-paying jobs,” said Bernier, whose city of nearly 12,000 is at “mile zero” of the Alaska Highway, the only land route to the US state of Alaska.
But others fear environmental and health problems.
Ecosystem scientist Annie Booth said hydrogen sulfide leaks from the pipeline could hurt or kill wildlife, farm animals and wildlife habitat.
Local aboriginal people “are reluctant to eat anything they hunt in those areas, because they said the meat is contaminated and looks unhealthy,” Booth said. “There are a significant number of concerns, that the government has failed to address, that might prompt an unstable person to use bombs.”
“Each relatively small development might not cause much problem,” said Orland Wilkerson, an environmental scientist at the University of Northern British Columbia. “But collectively they could cause a lot of damage, that’s the worry of some people.”
Some residents said development boosts the local economy, while others have staged protests over the threat of possible hydrogen sulfide leaks.
Police released a letter last month that may be linked to the bombings, warning EnCana “to close down your operations.”
The letter to EnCana said: “We will not negotiate with terrorists, which you are, as you keep on endangering our families with crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our homelands.”
Police hoped EnCana’s award would encourage community members to speak up about any suspicious individuals, Sergeant Tim Shields told reporters.
There is “growing concern about public safety, and the very real possibility that someone could be killed or injured if these explosions continue,” said Sergeant Tim Shields, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The bomber is probably a local with “a grievance with EnCana” who has “talked about those grievances to someone, possibly advocating or threatening violent action,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including