Closing off the BeringObama withdraws some northern parts of the sea from future oil and gas leasing ALAN BAILEY Petroleum News
With President Barack Obama having taken a heightened interest in the Alaska Arctic since his visit to the region in 2015, there has been speculation about any action he might take over environmental protection of the Arctic region during the closing weeks of his presidency. So it may not have been too great a surprise when, on Dec. 9, he issued an executive order, withdrawing parts of the northern Bering Sea from future oil and gas leasing.
The areas where future leasing will be prohibited consist of the Norton basin planning area and lease blocks within 25 miles of St. Lawrence Island within the Matthew-Hall planning area. In March 2010 Obama temporarily banned oil and gas leasing in the North Aleutian basin in the southern part of the Bering - in 2014 the president made that ban permanent.
Climate resilience area The order establishes a “Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area” covering about 112,300 square miles of ocean around the Bering Strait and stretching south to St. Matthew Island, Nunivak Island and Kuskokwim Bay. The area will be subject to requirements relating to the use of traditional Native knowledge, the planning of shipping routes, oil spill contingency planning and fishing restrictions. The order will also establish a task force and tribal advisory council for oversight of the climate resistance area’s ecosystem, and the rights and needs of Alaska Native tribes of the region. The oil and gas leasing withdrawals are in the more northerly part of the climate resilience area.
The executive order says that the purpose is to confront the challenges of a changing Arctic “by working to conserve Arctic biodiversity; support and engage Native tribes; incorporate traditional knowledge into decision making; and build a sustainable Arctic economy that relies on the highest safety and environmental standards, including adherence to national climate goals.”
Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott responded to the president’s order by expressing concern about the loss of access to land that may have future resource potential.
“We support tribal leaders in the Bering Straits region who worked diligently to provide economic opportunities for their community while protecting valuable resources,” Walker and Mallott said. “However, the State of Alaska is concerned about any further erosion of our ability to support much needed resource development at a time when the state is grappling with declining oil prices and production. We are concerned about the timing and lack of clarity on how this executive order will be implemented in the coming years.”
Congressional delegation responds The Alaska congressional delegation slammed the president’s action.
“Once again, the Obama administration has used unilateral action to hurt Alaskans. This executive order, drafted behind closed doors, unilaterally closes fishing grounds, removes oil and gas leasing, and creates hurdles to shipping, all with the stroke of a pen - without any consultation with the state, Alaska’s congressional delegation, or public notice, consultation, or comment,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan. “I will work closely with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Don Young, and the incoming administration to repair the damage done by eight years of the Obama administration and to restore the ability of Alaskans to determine their economic future and the ways their lands and water will be managed.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski questioned the meaning of the climate resilience area designation.
“We have no idea what that designation is supposed to mean, what legal authority it is supposed to rest on, what the limitations for it will be, or what it will mean for subsistence, shipping, fishing, and other activities in western and northern Alaska,” Murkowski said. “To me, this sure sounds like a euphemism for a marine monument, because it locks up over 112,000 square miles of Alaska waters and seems destined to impact a wide range of communities, tribes, and industries in our state. While I strongly support meaningful consultation with tribes, this opens the door to a whole host of unknowns, and could easily be misapplied to block even the most responsible Arctic subsistence, activities, and development.”
However, some Alaska Native groups have welcomed the president’s action.
“Whales, walruses, seals, and millions of seabirds travel by our islands and coastal villages. Our culture formed around this powerful phenomenon. It is where our stories come from, the foundation of our traditional knowledge,” said Frank Oxereok, the elder representative from village of Wales on the Bering Strait, according to a report in the Maritime Executive. “I appreciate the president’s announcement because he really listened to us and understands what is at stake for our tribes.”
Several basins The Bering Sea continental shelf holds several sedimentary basins, most of which are thought to be prospective for natural gas. The North Aleutian basin may also have oil. The basins, situated in remote offshore locations, have only seen very sparse hydrocarbon exploration, with a handful of wells drilled several decades ago. The land in the basins has not been offered for oil and gas leasing in recent lease sales. The last sale for the Norton basin took place in 1983, and there was a lease sale in the North Aleutian basin in 1988. Shell, during its most recent exploration program in Alaska, had been interested in exploring in the North Aleutian basin - a lease sale had been planned for the basin in 2011 but was cancelled following the 2010 presidential ban on leasing in the area.
Two stratigraphic test wells and six exploration wells were drilled in the Norton basin in the 1980s by Exxon and ARCO Alaska. Findings from these wells suggested that the basin has potential for gas rather than oil. No wells have been drilled in the St. Matthew-Hall basin, although the geology of the basin, as inferred from seismic data, suggests that that basin is also gas prone.
There are a couple of other large sedimentary basins with hydrocarbon potential in areas of the Bering Sea continental shelf where oil and gas leasing has not been banned. The St. George basin to the west of the North Aleutian basin is considered to be gas prone and saw the drilling of 10 exploration wells between 1976 and 1985. The Navarin basin, about 350 miles west of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, saw the drilling of nine wells between 1983 and 1987. Some of these wells encountered oil and gas shows, but none made a significant oil or gas find.
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