B.C. Ferries attributes part of its financial problems to rising fuel costs. The problem is that it is using the wrong fuel.
If the ferries were to be fuelled with natural gas, the fuel costs would be reduced to less than half.
B.C. has vast reserves of natural gas in the northeast of the province, gas currently being sold for a fraction of the prevailing world price. Thus, we are getting lower royalty revenues. Because of the low price, the producing companies tend to view this gas as a byproduct that limits their ability to produce natural-gas liquids, which currently have a much higher market value.
Even these liquids receive much lower prices than the prevailing world prices because of inadequate transportation facilities to the coast and the U.S. so the province leaves many millions of dollars on the table each month. Some of these millions of dollars could be going to schools, hospitals and public infrastructure.
B.C. would do well to consider fuelling ferries, school buses, transit buses and provincial and municipal vehicle fleets with natural gas.
With appropriate engineering, natural gas is a clean and safe fuel that has fewer negative health risk associated with it than liquid fuels.
The province could also look to facilitate the private sector to convert equipment to natural gas. This would lead to economies in transportation, mining and forestry which would both make these industries more competitive as well as creating a market for the province's surplus natural gas.
G.L. Fabris
Comox
