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Open Arctic Ocean opens new dangers Alaska Coast Guard commander comments on relative risks of shipping and oil exploration in Arctic waters Alan Bailey Petroleum News
As the climate warms and the Arctic sea ice cover shrinks, especially in the summer and fall, new economic opportunities are arising in Arctic waters. Russia is opening up a sea route around its northern coast and through the Bering Strait; tourist cruise ships have started appearing in previously inaccessible northern locations; and the oil industry is looking to the Arctic seas as a new frontier for building their oil and gas inventories.
The 2012 open water season saw Shell starting work on the first oil exploration wells seen in Alaska’s Arctic outer continental shelf in a couple decades.
But new activity brings new risks. On March 27, during a field hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard 17th District spoke to Sen. Mark Begich about some of the risks that the Coast Guard sees in the changing Arctic offshore scene.
The Coast Guard is currently investigating the Dec. 31 grounding in the Gulf of Alaska of the Kulluk, Shell’s Arctic floating drilling platform — people have been citing the Kulluk grounding as illustrating the dangers of operating in Alaska seas.
And, while the possibility of an oil spill from an offshore well is an obvious cause for concern, risks associated with Arctic shipping off the Alaska coastline are creating some headaches for the Coast Guard.
Increased traffic Ostebo said that, while any possibility of pollution of the ocean is of concern to the Coast Guard, he sees the steadily increasing volume of vessel traffic through the Bering Strait as bringing a particularly high risk of a marine accident in the Arctic. Of the almost 500 vessels that passed through the strait in 2012, only 22 vessels were part of Shell’s Arctic drilling program, he said. And, whereas the Coast Guard has pretty good oversight of vessels transiting between U.S. ports, the agency has little information about foreign flagged vessels travelling, say, from the north coast of Russia to Singapore or China.
“The highest probability of an incident is clearly the increased maritime traffic across the water,” Ostebo said, commenting that on the same day that the Kulluk ran aground the Coast Guard was involved in 15 other search and rescue cases around Alaska. Vessel accidents, including groundings, collisions, fires and people overboard, are quite common and there is an incident currently in progress involving the grounding on Kodiak Island of the Pacific Producer, a fish processing vessel.
When working with Shell in 2012, the Coast Guard had inspected all of the company’s vessels, knew where the vessels were located and had people on board, Ostebo said.
“We were all over them,” he said.
But a liquid condensate vessel perhaps coming from northern Russia through the Bering Strait, unannounced, with an unknown crew and millions of gallons of product on board, would present an entirely different situation.
“Those things can seriously bother me,” Ostebo said. “I don’t know what route they’re taking and they show up on our screen randomly.”
International initiatives The Coast Guard is engaged with international partners on an evaluation of vessel traffic management and ship routing measures for the Bering Strait, Ostebo said.
Ostebo also said that the Coast Guard is actively working with the Arctic Council, the United Nations International Maritime Organization and other groups to develop new safety standards for Arctic shipping and to develop international instruments for Arctic marine oil pollution preparedness and response.
“Last month we hosted representatives from Russia — their state maritime pollution control, salvage and rescue administration — to sign an expanded memorandum of understanding and joint contingency plan to foster cooperation between our two nations in the event of an oil spill in the region,” Ostebo said. The Coast Guard is also conducting joint contingency response exercises with Canada, he said.
The Coast Guard is also involved in an initiative in the International Maritime Organization to develop a Polar code, an international agreement over issues such as ship designs for safe operation in Arctic waters.
Annual operations Meantime, in Arctic Alaska, the Coast Guard has set up temporary operating locations in Prudhoe Bay, Barrow, Kotzebue and Nome each summer since 2008, and has deployed cutters, boats, helicopters, communications equipment and safety teams to the region, Ostebo said. The agency has worked with the oil industry on pollution prevention, preparedness and response, he said.
“Those engaged in industrial activities in the Arctic must also plan and prepare for emergency response in the face of the harsh environment; long transient distances for air and surface assets; and limited response resources,” Ostebo said.
During the 2012 open water season, in addition to deploying assets in connection with Shell’s drilling activities, the Coast Guard tested its own oil skimming and recovery systems in Alaska waters, he said.
The Coast Guard also participates in the interagency working group that President Obama established for the coordination of energy development permitting in Alaska.
Future activity With Shell having deferred its Arctic drilling plans for 2013, Ostebo anticipates an opportunity to focus on issues relating to the Bering Strait in the coming summer. However, the Coast Guard will deploy to the Arctic as usual this year and will continue a successful outreach program with Alaska Natives — the Coast Guard is working hard to protect the way of life of the indigenous people of the north, Ostebo said.
The open water season of 2014 could prove very busy, especially if Shell and ConocoPhillips move ahead with their planned drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Ostebo also said that he anticipates a significant amount of marine activity in 2014, triggered by developments at the Point Thomson field, with perhaps 30 to 40 barges being lightered from offshore. The Coast Guard will be “all over” that activity because of the potential for an accident, Ostebo said.
Sequestration, the cuts in the federal government budget, is a concern for the Coast Guard and the agency is in the process of assessing the impact of this on its operations.
“We have a reduction in our flight hours and our offshore maritime activity is being reduced because of that,” Ostebo said.
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