The Impacts of Environmental and Socio-Economic Costs on Beaufort Sea

Abstract

<p> Cost data from different marine and pipeline scenarios were analyzed under changing world oil price and discount assumptions to determine a minimum economic scale for Beaufort Sea - Mackenzie Delta hydrocarbon development. Environmental and socio-economic impacts were included to supplement the purely economic analysis. </p> <p> The minimum economic scale project, a sixteen-inch pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley, was found to be marginally economic. When environmental and social costs were assumed to be internalized by the companies involved, and federal government exploration and development incentives disregarded, the minimum scale project was found to yield a negative internal rate of return. </p>