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December 2009

Vol. 14, No. 51 Week of December 20, 2009

BBNC opposes offshore leasing, Pebble

Native regional corporation says oil and gas leasing, mine development are too risky for fish-rich Bristol Bay; others fire back

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

A major stakeholder in the Bristol Bay region has come out against offshore oil and gas leasing in the North Aleutian basin.

The Bristol Bay Native Corp. announced Dec. 11 its board passed a resolution opposing the federal government’s planned lease sales in the basin, which takes in some of the nation’s richest commercial fishing grounds.

A press release said the BBNC board “believes that the risks from offshore drilling to the Bering Sea’s living marine resources, and the communities that depend on them, from significant industrial activity and petrochemical spills, far outweigh any potential local or national benefits.”

The BBNC board also passed a resolution opposing Pebble, a hugely controversial copper and gold mine proposed in the distant headwaters of two important Bristol Bay salmon rivers.

‘Way of life’

BBNC is one of 13 regional corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. It represents more than 8,500 Eskimo, Aleut and Athabascan shareholders and has extensive land holdings in southwestern Alaska.

Corporation businesses include fueling, construction, environmental engineering and remediation, and government contracting. Its CCI subsidiary provides a range of services in the North Slope oil fields including asbestos abatement and oil spill response.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service is proposing two lease sales in the North Aleutian basin, one in 2011 and another in 2014. The agency is now preparing an environmental impact statement for the first sale.

The basin is considered a much better prospect for natural gas than for oil. One company, Shell, has expressed strong interest, going so far as to lay out a plan for producing liquefied natural gas from the region.

The BBNC board, however, doesn’t favor leasing in the basin.

“The corporation encourages the restoration of measures to protect Bristol Bay and the southeastern Bering Sea from offshore oil and gas development. BBNC plans to be a staunch advocate on behalf of its shareholders and their way of life as this issue becomes more imminent,” said Joseph Chythlook, board chairman.

While BBNC is not alone in opposing offshore leasing, other organizations such as the Aleutians East Borough and the industrial fishing town of Unalaska have expressed support.

A 1986 sale resulted in issuance of 23 leases in the basin, but the government later bought the leases back in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Pebble opposition, backlash

The BBNC board also passed a resolution opposing Pebble, the massive mine project partners Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals are advancing toward the permitting stage. The mine site is northeast of Bristol Bay, near Iliamna Lake.

The resolution was a departure from the neutral stance the corporation took in 2006. A BBNC press release cited “unquantifiable impacts the project could have on the natural resources of the Bristol Bay region.”

“Maintaining a neutral stance on the Pebble Mine project is no longer in the best interest of the corporation or to the values of cultural and economic sustainability to which we hold ourselves,” Chythlook said.

The BBNC resolution drew fire from two Native village corporations with land near the Pebble prospect.

“Bristol Bay Native Corporation’s unilateral decision to oppose the Pebble Project is a declaration of economic warfare on our shareholders, our villages and our future,” said a press release from the Alaska Peninsula Corp., which has extensive land holdings at Iliamna Lake and includes the villages of Newhalen, Kokhanok, South Naknek, Ugashik and Port Heiden.

Alaska Peninsula President Ralph Angasan said in part: “BBNC has not developed, or sought to develop, economic opportunities in our villages, and has now threatened to extinguish our ability to survive and provide real opportunities for our people. We are committed to the wise development of the resources and to creating real economic opportunities for our shareholders, who are also shareholders of Bristol Bay Native Corporation. There is no mine, and there may never be a mine. But BBNC’s decision to oppose, rather than to weigh the evidence, before the permitting process has even begun, condemns our people to poverty.”

Pedro Bay Corp., which holds land linking Pebble to Cook Inlet and is neutral on the mine pending the outcome of the permitting process, also denounced BBNC’s resolution. Pedro Bay Chairman John Allen Adcox said the resolution is based on an “irrational and unsubstantiated fear of the future.”






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