Cameron Island is one of the uninhabited members of the
Queen Elizabeth Islands
The Queen Elizabeth Islands (french: Îles de la Reine-Élisabeth; formerly Parry Islands or Parry Archipelago) are the northernmost cluster of islands in Canada's Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Northe ...
in the
Canadian arctic islands
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark).
Situated in the northern extremity of ...
in
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...
, Canada. Located in the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
, close to
Bathurst Island, it has an area of , long and wide.
Île Vanier
Île Vanier is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Canadian arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada. Located at 76°10'N 103°15'W, it has an area of . It has length of and width of . To the north, across the Arnott Strait, is Cameron Island, ...
lies immediately to the south, across the
Arnott Strait.
Commercial oil production
Cameron Island is notable as being the only site which has been developed for commercial oil production in the Canadian Arctic islands. From 1985 to 1996 the double-hulled tanker M.V.Arctic shipped the light crude from Bent Horn in the south-west of the island to Montreal. A total of was produced until the field was abandoned in 1996. The initial discovery, in 1974 by
Panarctic Oils Ltd
Panarctic Oils Limited was formed in 1966 as a result of the Canadian government's eagerness to encourage exploration of the Canadian Arctic islands and to assert Canadian sovereignty in the region. That company consolidated the interests of 75 c ...
, reflected the urgency to find new sources of crude oil after the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...
. The abandonment in 1996 reflects the difficulties of exploiting the resource in this harsh environment, although the current production licence (held by Canada Southern Petroleum Ltd) expired in 2010 and could be extended. After abandonment, final clean-up occurred in 1999.
Cameron Island is a desolate spot: a dark-hued landscape of low hills. Oil exploration and traffic on land were concentrated in the winter months, when "winter roads" of compacted snow across the tundra were used by heavy vehicles. Appropriate efforts were taken to minimise the damage to this fragile environment, but where the vegetation was damaged, increased depths of summer thaw occurred. Possibly the greatest concern was caused by the sumps at the well-sites, into which the toxic drilling muds were pumped. These basins, blasted out of the permafrost, relied on the gradual freeze-back of the ground to seal in the waste materials.
Cameron Island was named in 1952 after Maxwell George Cameron (d.1951), the chief cartographer of the surveys and mapping branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys.
See also
*
Patterson Rock
References
External links
Cameron Islandin the
Atlas of Canada
The Atlas of Canada (french: L'Atlas du Canada) is an online atlas published by Natural Resources Canada that has information on every city, town, village, and hamlet in Canada. It was originally a print atlas, with its first edition being publishe ...
- Toporama; Natural Resources Canada
{{Islands of the Qikiqtaaluk Region
Islands of the Queen Elizabeth Islands
Uninhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region