Our Arctic Neighbors: Oil industry could help with shipping incidents

The Norwegian oil industry could actually make Arctic waters safer by providing the equipment to respond to spills from foreign ships, Statoil’s Hege Marie Norheim told the Arctic Frontiers conference. She drew attention to incident in July 2009 when the Panama-registered and Chinese-owned oil tanker Full City ran aground near the town of Langesund in southern Norway, spilling over 200 tons of oil.

“The risk of substantial oil spill close to the Norwegian shore from shipping traffic is much higher than the risk from petroleum activities, and this is true also in Lofoten in Vesteralen, and it is true both with or without our industry in the area,” Norheim said. “Every day a ship like Full City ... passes through Vesteralen and Lofoten. These ships are hired on the spot market and can come from Nigeria, Asia, anywhere. And the shipping traffic of oil tankers from Russia, as well as regular passenger and tourist vessels in these waters constitutes a constant danger for oil spill in Lofoten.”

If petroleum activities were to be authorized in the far northern Lofoten and Vesteralen waters, the industry would have to invest in equipment, storage, surveillance, boats, organization, training and overall capacity for oil spill prevention on a major scale, Norheim told the conference. This capacity would then be available to the authorities in the case of a shipping accident, she added.

A report prepared by risk management company Det Norske Veritas last fall for the World Wildlife Fund said that on average Statoil would need to drill 13,000 wells in Lofoten and Vesteralen to experience a major blowout — almost three times as many as the company has already drilled on the entire Norwegian shelf. But Statoil still has to be prepared for the worst, Norheim said.

“Lofoten and Vesteralen will get the world’s best oil spill preparedness,” Norheim said. “We have already started developing what will be a state-of-the-art system for dealing with potential spills close to the shore.” Statoil and Eni are partners in the Goliat oil and gas project in the Barents Sea, for which they recently announced a contract to build a new standby vessel.

“This will be a boat specifically designed and equipped for conditions in the Barents Sea. It will feature an oil-detecting radar and infrared cameras that will allow it to operate in total darkness,” Norheim told the conference.