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.

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.

[1] Cameron Island is a desolate spot: a dark-hued landscape of low hills.

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.