Chukchi Sea lease sale opens Feb. 6

TAMAR BEN-YOSEF

January 11, 2008 at 9:31AM AKST

On Wednesday, Feb. 6, Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193 will officially open about 46,000 square miles of outer continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas activities off northwest Alaska.

The 193 sale area extends from about 25 to 200 miles offshore from north of Point Barrow to northwest of Cape Lisburne and encompasses about 29 million acres.

The area will not include a nearshore buffer zone ranging from about 25 to 50 miles from the coast, Minerals Management Service Director Randall Luthi told the Associated Press.

That buffer zone includes a nearshore "polynya" through which bowhead and beluga whales, other marine mammals and marine birds migrate north in the spring and in which local communities hunt, he said.

It will be the first federal oil and gas lease sale on the outer continental shelf of the Chukchi Sea since 1991, according to the Associated Press.

The area is said to contain an estimated 15 billion barrels of conventionally recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of conventionally recoverable natural gas, according to Robin Cacy, Alaska spokeswoman for MMS.

Minerals Management Service, an agency within the department of Interior, issued the final approval for the sale on Jan. 2, despite strong opposition from Native and environmental groups statewide.

Released in the midst of heated debates about national elections, warming temperatures and skyrocketing oil and gas prices, the announcement fuels debate among those who feel drilling will have a detrimental effect on both human and wildlife populations in the Arctic.

"With all the changes happening out in the Chukchi Sea, I don't think we should be adding to the problem with offshore oil exploration," North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said.

In an official response from the mayor's office, Itta said that even without climate change, underwater noise associated with oil drilling and the potential for a catastrophic spill argue against offshore development.

In public letters to the media, environmentalists are advocating on behalf of polar bears, walrus, whales, birds and other species that may be directly or indirectly affected by drilling activities.

T he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was scheduled to decide whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species by Jan. 9 but postponed the decision until later this month. If the polar bear is listed, FWS is required to designate critical habitat for the bear, which may include the same waters contained in Lease Sale 193.

> "(As endangered species), Fish and Wildlife and MMS would have to make it a top priority to ensure that there are not extremely negative impacts on the polar bears," said Whit Sheard, Alaska Program director with Pacific Environment.

"Our initial concern is in the circumpolar level – the site-specific level – oil spills are virtually guaranteed to happen and can't be cleaned up," he said.

> Last December, StatoilHydro energy group officials said an estimated 25,000 barrels worth of oil soiled the waters in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea at the Statfjord oilfield.

The spill occurred as crews loaded oil from a storage unit to a tanker, according to a Reuters report from Dec. 13. Strong winds and high waves prevented cleanup crews from skimming the oil immediately after the spill, the report stated.

Itta expressed similar concerns, saying MMS documents acknowledge a relatively high probability of a large spill, with no sufficient data that cleanup strategies work in the frozen waters of the Arctic. >

The borough has asked MMS to gather more baseline data before considering development, according to the mayor's statement.

"You can't measure the impacts over time if you don't have a starting point. That's the whole purpose of baseline data," Itta said.

But while at this point in time, the North Slope Borough sends a clear message against offshore drilling, some of its residents may stand to gain from oil activities, as they have gained from on-shore developments.

At least that is what Arctic Slope Regional Corp. hopes will be the case. The corporation generates most of its capital, which subsequently goes towards dividends and grants to its shareholders, from the profits of oil and gas activities in the North Slope.

In an official statement from ASRC, the corporation stated that despite attempts to aggressively pursue on-shore development, the OCS development might be inevitable.

"The question we face is how do we ensure our people have a seat at the table when decisions are being made?" said Tara Sweeney, director of government affairs at ASRC.

"When development occurs, we want to be there to ensure that both the economic and subsistence interests of our shareholders are addressed. ASRC will actively monitor and participate in this process for the maximum benefit of our shareholders," she said.

Tamar Ben-Yosef can be reached at (907) 348-2419 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 419.