WAINWRIGHT, ALASKA — To archaeologist Richard E. “Rick” Reanier, the 10-foot-high mound on a sandy spit on the coast of northwest Alaska was no mere pile of sand.
Circling in front, he found the top of an old kerosene tin. Around the side, he turned over a rusty door from a nearly century-old cast iron stove. Brushing away some sand, he uncovered the ruins of an entrance corridor to an Inupiat house made of sod and driftwood.
Drilling near the wilderness
Beyond this stretch of beach lies the vast Chukchi Sea, stretching from eastern Siberia to the Alaskan coast on the edge of the Arctic. For centuries, Native Alaskan Inupiat have roamed these shores hunting bowhead whales, bearded seals, walruses and caribou.
Now Shell Oil is also hunting in the Chukchi Sea. This pristine area inside the Arctic Circle is the next frontier for offshore oil drilling in the United States. The Interior Department estimates the Chukchi Sea could hold as much as 12 billion recoverable barrels of oil, about half of current U.S. proved reserves.
Shell agrees, and some in Washington are inclined to support the company at a time of soaring energy costs. Even though it has not drilled a single hole yet, Shell has spent $2.1 billion to acquire Chukchi leases, plus almost $2 billion to collect seismic data, study the coast, and refurbish ice-breaking ships for drilling 70 miles offshore here and in the Beaufort Sea during the summer of 2012.
Reanier, working under a contract with Shell, is identifying cultural sites to be avoided if and when a pipeline comes ashore. “If you don’t know where they are, you can’t protect them,” he said, marking the location of the sandy mound.
Two decades ago, a handful of wells were drilled in the Chukchi Sea, but oil companies didn’t think it was worth developing. Now, prices have soared, and Shell thinks there is more recoverable oil there than previously thought.
“There is a prize over there,” says Pete Slaiby, vice president of Shell Alaska.
But oil development could threaten the sea mammals the Inupiat people hunt for food. Several lawsuits have been filed to get government agencies to block Chukchi drilling. Alaska Natives worry that the mere noise of drilling would disrupt the feeding and migration patterns of bowhead whales, beluga, walruses and seals. The draft of a study done for Shell suggests that seismic surveys have already silenced walruses, or frightened them off to other feeding grounds.
A sea-centered culture
“Our culture revolves around the ocean,” Mae Hank, an outspoken resident of Point Hope, to the south of the village of Wainwright, says tearfully. “The ocean is very sensitive.”
The drilling moratorium after the Gulf of Mexico spill last year put Shell’s plans on ice for a time and heightened anxiety about how Shell could deal with an Arctic spill. And in the past week, a 1,300-barrel oil spill at a Shell platform in the North Sea aroused drilling foes.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft said recently that dispersants wouldn’t work in icy water, that the Arctic doesn’t have the same oil-chomping microbes the gulf has and that the nearest Coast Guard response vessel is 1,200 miles away. Whereas thousands of workers flocked to the gulf coast to fight the spill there, there are only a handful of rooms at the tiny Olgoonik Hotel here.
The Post Most: BusinessMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
World Markets from
Other Market Data from
Key Rates from
Loading...
Comments