By PETER KENNEDY AND SIMON TUCK
With files from reporter Dave Ebner

OTTAWA and VANCOUVER -- British Columbia is renewing its push to persuade Ottawa to lift a 34-year-old exploration moratorium that has blocked any move to develop the province's offshore oil and gas reserves.

With oil trading at about $72 (U.S.) a barrel, the economic potential of the offshore reserves is escalating by the day, and B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said he wants the moratorium removed.

"The moratorium obviously is still in place and we're working with the federal government, the newly elected folks, on how we can actually move forward with lifting that moratorium," he said in an interview.

Mr. Neufeld said B.C. is anxious to begin seismic work to assess the potential of petroleum deposits off the Queen Charlotte Islands. They have been estimated at 10 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

However, the Conservative federal government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it has no plans to alter the federal moratorium on offshore drilling or to even hold discussions about doing so.

"The government's position hasn't changed," Emma Welford, spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, said in an interview yesterday.

Mr. Lunn and Mr. Neufeld discussed the issue during their only meeting a few months ago but no further talks are planned, she said.

Before he joined the federal cabinet earlier this year, Ms. Welford said, Mr. Lunn's position was that drilling for oil and natural gas off B.C.'s shore offers the potential for significant economic benefits, but that more precise estimates on that potential are needed.

That had raised hopes in the B.C. business community, which is looking enviously at offshore development taking place in Newfoundland and wants to tap the economic potential of its own resources.

"We don't understand why we can't have the same opportunity in Western Canada," said Jock Finlayson, vice-president with the Vancouver-based Business Council of British Columbia.

But one veteran observer of the oil exploration scene said the position taken by the new Harper government comes as no surprise.

"My view is that the chances of anything happening really, physically, tangibly on B.C. offshore is some ways away and would have to wait at least until a majority government is in power in Ottawa," said former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford.

After moving to Vancouver Island in the early 1990s, Mr. Peckford led a push to have the moratorium lifted but he has since retired.

He said Ottawa's reticence may be attributable to what he sees as an inconsistent approach to the issue on the part of the provincial government and opposition from first nations in western B.C.

"I suspect that the federal government, being a minority government, even though they may be inclined to be in favour of something like this would say, 'when you get your house in order, come and talk to us,' " he said.