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Calls for end to Arctic drilling freeze Lifting of 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling doesn’t include Alaska; state asks expedited hearing of suit against moratorium Dan Joling Associated Press Writer
With the Oct. 12 lifting of the six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska officials say it’s also time to lift a suspension on shallow-water drilling in Arctic waters.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he was ending the deepwater drilling moratorium imposed in April after the BP deepwater oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Salazar said at the time that he was imposing a suspension on drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
Parnell calls for lifting of Arctic suspension Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Oct. 12 that the Arctic suspension also should be lifted.
“If Secretary Salazar can lift the moratorium for wells in 5,000 feet of water, he should be able to do so for a shallow-water well in the Beaufort Sea,” Parnell said.
Salazar’s decision blocked plans by Shell Oil to drill exploratory wells this year in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast and the Beaufort Sea off the north coast during the short open water season.
Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby said earlier in October the company needs a decision by December to move forward with its 2011 plans, which involve moving north a drilling ship and a small fleet of support vessels, including spill response boats. Slaiby said Shell will limit its 2011 plans to exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea.
Parnell said the 2011 drilling season in Alaska is at stake and the industry needs regulatory certainty.
The stakes are high for drilling in Alaska, which receives upward of 90 percent of its general fund revenue from the petroleum industry and where North Slope reserves have diminished.
Salazar has given no timetable for a decision. Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Oct. 12 by e-mail that the secretary is moving cautiously.
“Secretary Salazar believes we need to continue to take a cautious approach in the Arctic that is guided by science and the voices of North Slope communities,” she said.
Request for expedited review In September the state sued to overturn what Parnell and Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan called an illegal federal moratorium on offshore drilling on Alaska’s outer continental shelf.
On Oct. 12, the Department of Law said it had asked for an expedited review of its suit.
“It is a cruel irony for Alaska to have been improperly bootstrapped into a moratorium that stemmed from deepwater activities in the Gulf, and then have the Gulf moratorium lifted without similar relief for Alaska’s Arctic exploration activities, which occur in much shallower waters,” Sullivan is quoted as saying in a press release announcing the new court filing.
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said Oct. 12 he was frustrated that Salazar’s announcement on deepwater drilling did not mention Alaska.
“Because of our short drilling season and the complexity of getting equipment in place, Alaska operators need certainty about what development they can do when,” he said.
Environmental and some Alaska Native groups bitterly oppose drilling in Arctic waters, which lack a deepwater port and other infrastructure that could be useful for cleanup of a major spill.
The nearest Coast Guard base is more than 1,000 miles away in Kodiak and spill cleanup could be slowed by notorious Arctic coast weather, ice and darkness.
—The Anchorage Daily News contributed to this story.
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