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 Norther ...

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 N ...

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, ...

, 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 Arnott Strait is a waterway in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It separates Cameron Island (to the north) from Île Vanier Île Vanier is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Canadian arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada. Located ...

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, reflected the urgency to find new sources of crude oil after the 1973 oil crisis. 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.

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Cameron Island
in 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 pu ...

- Toporama; Natural Resources Canada {{Islands of the Qikiqtaaluk Region Islands of the Queen Elizabeth Islands Uninhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region

Commercial oil production

See also

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