The oil group Shell has got the green light Friday to U.S. federal authorities for offshore drilling operations off the coast of Alaska, Chukchi Sea. Located on the northwest coastal side of the Arctic Ocean, this site would house the equivalent of 27 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Six wells are expected to be operational in July. The Department of the Interior found satisfactory relief measures provided by Shell disaster comparable to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It remains to obtain the approval of two administrations in charge of environmental issues.
Shell, which has already invested $ 4 billion in offshore exploration in the last five years, this new eagerly awaited, the federal government has always welcomed drilling projects in Alaska with extreme caution.
The trauma of the "Exxon Valdez"
Since the beginning of site operations at Prudhoe Bay (north) and the commissioning of the pipeline transalaska (TAPS) in 1977, associations of environmental protection and Native American tribes have multiplied the legal procedures to prevent these operations drilling. This did not prevent the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, near Valdez oil terminal in March 1989. 40,000 tons of crude oil had passed into the Pacific Ocean, causing one of the worst environmental disasters of all time.
"On the Arctic frontier, said Secretary of State for the Interior Ken Salazar, a measured exploration, carried out with extreme caution, draconian security measures and emergency device the most rigorous ever made, we will improve our knowledge of the region and its natural resources, all in an effort to increase our production of domestic oil and gas in order to both safely and responsibly. "
On 1 December 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to open two portions of the Arctic coastal zone (OCS) to offshore production to offset the relative decline of the pipeline, whose daily flow has dropped from two million to 600,000 barrels since 1988.
The decision of the Department of the Interior has angered associations of environmental protection and Native American tribes, who fear a serious threat to the ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean, with the specter of the Exxon Valdez still present in public opinion. "These waters are home to endangered humpback whales, many polar bears, seals and sea lions," Lois Epstein is moved, the Wilderness Society in Anchorage.
Opponents of the project should quickly grasp the American justice system to push two or three years the start of drilling in Chukchi Sea, arguing that the extreme weather of the Arctic (cold, wind, darkness) made the security measures put forward by Shell insufficient and uncertain.