Economy
The Port au Port Peninsula's economy is based on natural resources, namely fishing. Limited forestry takes place in the unsettled areas of the interior and a small amount of subsistence farming takes place along coastal areas. Many residents of the peninsula, particularly the communities at the eastern end near the isthmus, work in nearby Kippens and Stephenville.
Beginning in 1900 a limestone quarrying operation was established at Aguathuna, near the peninsula's isthmus where the Table Head mountain ridge extends from the Lewis Hills. The limestone was used by Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation at a steel mill in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The quarry was closed in 1966 following DOSCO's financial difficulties.
From 1941–1966, many people in the eastern end of the peninsula were employed at Ernest Harmon AFB in nearby Stephenville.
From the 1970s to present a major limestone quarry began operating at Lower Cove employing 30-40 people.
In the 1980s-1990s, petroleum companies began exploring the peninsula for oil. Some deposits were discovered in recoverable quantities and limited production wells are in place at some locations. Geologists have estimated that a much larger deposit exists deeper and possibly off shore from the peninsula in the 400-500 billion barrel range, however exploration drilling has not yet confirmed this theory.
A Canadian energy company may soon get the green light to begin drilling for oil off Newfoundland's southwest coast. The Canadian Imperial Venture Corporation (CIVC) is waiting for approval from the federal-provincial oil regulator – the Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board – to drill a test well on Shoal Point, near the Port Au Port Peninsula. The company has been exploring in the area over the last few years. It discovered some oil there in 2008. "At the turn of the century there were several wells on the Port Au Port Peninsula, and Shoal Point, that produced somewhere between 20 to 25 barrels a day," said Kirby Mercer, CIVC's vice-president. "Now, we're going in with modern technology, modern tools. So we hope to extract the black gold using modern technology." Mercer said if the company receives approval for a test well and drilling is successful, CIVC hopes the Offshore Petroleum Board will then approve a significant discovery licence. That would bring the company one step closer to establishing an oil-producing well in western Newfoundland.
Today travellers access the area using the Marine Atlantic ferry service to Channel-Port aux Basques or with Sunwing Airlines, Flair Airlines and Provincial Airlines to the Stephenville International Airport.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)