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Overview: North Aleutian basin workshop Oil, gas development questions aired at March 18-19 energy-fisheries meeting in advance of proposed MMS oil and gas lease sale Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The North Aleutian basin energy-fisheries workshop held in Anchorage March 18 to 19 brought together a wide assortment of people from different backgrounds to review and discuss issues relating to possible future interactions between the oil industry and Bering Sea fishing. Organized under the auspices of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Sea Grant College Program the workshop sought to identify future impacts of oil and gas industry activities and the associated research needed in advance of a proposed U.S. Minerals Management Service lease sale in the North Aleutian basin.
Several organizations including Shell Oil, the University of Alaska and MMS funded the workshop.
Early stage John Goll, director of the MMS Alaska region, said that the process for determining whether a North Aleutian basin lease sale would take place was at an early stage and that there is no guarantee that a sale will occur.
There was, however, discussion at the workshop about the need for early dialogue and action, to ensure that the concerns of residents of the Aleutians and Bristol Bay are taken into account, and that issues relating the Bering Sea fishing industry are effectively dealt with.
In general the mayors of the various municipalities in the region expressed support for oil and gas development, with caveats around understanding and mitigating the risks. The mayors see the potential for new employment that would raise the standard of living of residents. Tax income from the oil and gas industry could also enable the improvement of the infrastructure in the region.
The residents themselves expressed a range of opinions from support to opposition. Opposition focused on concerns about potential threats to the traditional subsistence way of life and culture.
Fishing industry The comments from the fishing industry also ranged from guarded support for oil and gas development to opposition. Experts explained that several major Bering Sea fisheries overlap with the area of the proposed lease sale. In some cases, the pollock trawl fishery for example, prime fishing grounds lie over the most prospective part of the oil and gas basin.
The potential for an oil spill proved a major concern expressed by several workshop speakers, and there was also some discussion about the possible impact of seismic surveying on fishing.
In one session that included a videoconference with Norway, experts talked about the relationships between the oil and fishing industries on the Norwegian continental shelf and in the North Sea. And in another session Gordon Slade, executive director of One Ocean Canada, described the coordination of oil industry and fishing activities offshore Newfoundland.
One panel session reviewed the history of the Cook Inlet oil and gas industry and the impact of that industry on fishing and the regional economy.
Representatives from the World Wildlife Fund and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council expressed outright opposition to any oil and gas development in the Bering Sea, saying that the risks to the environment would be too great that that the environmental challenges cannot be met.
Several speakers at the workshop talked about the value of forming an organization that could represent local interests in negotiations over possible oil and gas developments. An organization of this type could also monitor and act on the issues that arise.
Overall, much of the workshop debate revolved around how to balance the economic benefits of an energy industry based on non-renewable resources against the risks to a renewable and substantial fishery resource and to the indigenous subsistence culture. Can modern technology and expertise adequately mitigate those risks? Or are the risks too high to accept? And would the oil industry bring a unique opportunity to revitalize rural communities?
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