Blowout: Is Canada Next?

Blowout: Is Canada Next? tracks the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and transposes the oil spill to Canada’s very own Grand Banks. By detailing the latest scientific findings in the Gulf of Mexico, the documentary builds a picture of what an offshore drilling catastrophe would look like on Canada’s east coast. On May 10, 2010, Chevron began drilling Canada’s deepest exploration oil well. Compared to the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf, exploration drilling in Canada is in water two times deeper and six times further out to sea where the North Atlantic’s treacherous waters and extreme weather variations make it one of the world’s toughest environments for drilling. The threat of an offshore blowout in Canada is real. U.S. scientists are concerned that the toxic combination of oil and dispersants used in the Deepwater Horizon cleanup could create enormous ocean dead zones and eventually travel up the food chain. A disaster of Gulf proportions off the coast of Newfoundland would devastate the world’s last remaining Atlantic cod fishery along with several species of whales, seals, turtles, and seabirds that feed in the rich Orphan Basin. Canada has entered the race to drill in deeper and deeper waters, but safety procedures and cleanup technologies have not kept pace with the petrochemical industry’s pursuit of offshore oil. What if a blowout happened here?