State supplements lease sale findings

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas has supplemented the final findings of the director for its Beaufort Sea, Foothills and North Slope areawide lease sales to reflect the Deepwater Horizon.

The division said that in response to a call for new information it determined “that there is substantial new information that justifies supplements” to best interest findings for the areawide lease sales. The division received comments from the North Slope Borough, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and Peter McKay, all stating that the Deepwater Horizon constituted new information which justified supplementing the best interest findings.

In July 8 supplements the division reviewed what is known to date about the April 20 fire and explosion on the semi-submersible rig in the Gulf of Mexico which killed 11 and caused an ongoing oil spill.

It noted that a final investigative report will be made available to the public and is scheduled for release in January 2011.

“The State of Alaska is closely following the activities in the Gulf of Mexico,” the division said. “When the causes of the incident are established and made available, we will determine any applicability to Alaska, and will modify or issue new mitigation measures or lessee advisories, as needed.”

The division said the North Slope Borough said in its comments that the Deepwater Horizon incident showed the state should reexamine its leasing policies, operational requirements and conditions, and spill prevention and response assumptions and conclusions.

Comments from the Northern Alaska Environmental Center covered similar ground, the division said, stating that the Deepwater Horizon incident indicated major shortcomings in blowout prevention, inspection, and worst-case scenario spill risks, response, and environmental impact review by government and industry.

The division said the director considered issuing a supplement, extending the period for submitting new information and delaying or canceling the lease sales.

“However, the causes of the incident are not known at this time, and it is unknown as this time if contributing factors were unique to the Gulf of Mexico, the federal regulatory framework, or the companies or specific operations involved,” the division said.

Changes made to mitigation measures now could miss the actual causes of the incident, coordination of action with other state agencies could be lacking and revised measures could unnecessarily increase the regulatory burden and could be ineffective or counterproductive at protecting human life and the environment, the division said.