Interest builds for Arctic seaport

State, federal officials hold Anchorage planning session, say northern port could support resource development, Coast Guard, science

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

Momentum seems to be building for potential development of one or more seaports along Alaska’s Arctic Ocean coast.

The state Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosted a planning session on the idea May 16-17 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.

“The U.S. needs deep-draft Arctic ports along Alaska’s coast,” said state Transportation Commissioner Marc Luiken. Such ports are vital to project a U.S. presence in the region, to open up opportunities for economic growth, and to support mineral development and scientific studies, he said.

By deep-draft, port planners mean greater than 20 feet, said a state DOT press release on the planning session.

The state is proposing one or more deep-draft ports to support the exportation of natural resources and the importation of bulk goods and supplies, the release said.

The U.S. Coast Guard also could make use of a northernmost port, as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Participants in the planning session included Alaska Congressman Don Young and Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, plus representatives for Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich and Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. Commissioners of several state departments also took part.

Other attendees included representatives from the Navy, Alaska Homeland Security, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the University of Alaska and the Alaska Marine Pilots.

Because of climate change and the growing availability of open water as ice cover recedes, the Arctic Ocean could see increased shipping and other activity with a corresponding need for ports.

In December 2009, Murkowski introduced the Arctic Deep Water Sea Port Act. The bill, S. 2849, would have required the defense secretary to conduct a feasibility study “to protect and advance strategic United States interests within the evolving and ever more important Arctic region.”

“The United States needs to be able to guard its territorial claims and its economic interests in the Arctic, especially as a decrease in seasonal ice is leading to increased marine activity in the region,” Murkowski said in a press release at the time she introduced the bill.

Young introduced a companion bill, H.R. 4576, in February 2010.

Murkowski and Young also have offered legislation “to authorize funds to acquire hydrographic data and provide hydrographic services specific to the Arctic for safe navigation.”

More recently, the Alaska Legislature included $972,000 in the state capital budget to “begin the study and mapping of potential arctic deepwater port sites with the help of the Corps of Engineers,” the state DOT press release said. “It is estimated that it will require $2 million more to complete the study by 2014.”

A port could be “a major infrastructure asset to any future potential endeavors to produce oil and gas from deepwater reserves in the Arctic,” the release said.

At the planning session, participants discussed such topics as the design of the port and the size of vessels it would need to accommodate.

“We accomplished a great deal,” said Col. Reinhard Koenig, commander of the Army Corps Alaska District. “We’re at the very beginning of the planning stages, but we determined that a deep-draft port is needed and would be beneficial to Alaska and the nation.”

The state and the Corps intend to use the planning session results to help design development.