US Changes Course, Bans Drilling In Arctic Wetland
US: May 19, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Bush administration on Friday proposed keeping
potentially oil-rich wetlands in Arctic Alaska off-limits to drilling
because of their ecological sensitivity, a reversal of its earlier plan.
The Bureau of Land Management proposed a 10-year leasing moratorium for
430,000 acres of wetlands north and east of vast Teshekpuk Lake in the
National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists and local groups hailed
the decision.
"This plan provides a balanced approach to energy development and wildlife
protection, and forms a solid basis for the Bureau of Land Management to
proceed with an oil and gas lease sale later this year," Interior Secretary
Dirk Kempthorne said in a statement.
The area, the North Slope's biggest freshwater lake, is considered
potentially rich in oil and gas as well as a critical habitat for migrating
birds and caribou. Two years ago, the administration was poised to sell
leases to energy companies seeking to drill.
But a lawsuit by environmentalists and native groups forced the agency to
revisit the plan in late 2006.
Extensive public comment, input from the local government and practical
considerations contributed to the policy change, said Jim Ducker, an
environmental program analyst for the BLM.
Ducker noted that the area is 40 to 70 miles away from any oil-field
infrastructure.
"Our thinking is, it's pretty darn unlikely that we're going to have any
development there" in the near future, he said.
Ducker said the BLM hopes the new plan will result in a lease sale this
fall, to encompass essentially the same area offered for lease by the
Clinton administration in 1999.
Geologists estimate the area holds 2.8 billion barrels of oil, he said, with
800 million barrels in the deferral area.
Environmentalists were pleased with the BLM's new plan.
"It is a win," said Stan Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska, one
of the groups campaigning for preservation. "I think they've responded to
public interest in seeing that the area's protected, and it gives people who
care about the place time to work on a permanent solution."
The BLM statement noted that North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said "The
lease sale can proceed while one of the region's most sensitive wildlife
habitats will be protected. It's a win-win."
The borough, which opposed oil development in the area because it is
important to Inupiat Eskimo hunters, was enlisted to help prepare the new
plan after a federal judge voided the previous leasing plan.
The 23 million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, on the central North
Slope, was created in 1923 as a potential source of energy for the military.
Despite sporadic exploration drilling since the 1940s, almost all the
successful oil development that ensued on the North Slope occurred on state
land east of the reserve.
Industry interest in the petroleum reserve resurfaced in the 1990s, after
Arco Alaska Inc. discovered the Alpine oil field on state land bordering the
federal unit. Alpine is now operated by Arco successor ConocoPhillips.
While there has never been any commercial oil production in the petroleum
reserve, ConocoPhillips and partner Anadarko plan to develop Alpine
satellite fields on the federal land there.
(Editing by David Gregorio)
Story by Yereth Rosen
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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