Anchorage (Platts)--21Aug2009
The US Coast Guard is strengthening its presence in US Arctic regions,
testing equipment and operating strategies for the third summer season, to
ensure safety as oil and gas exploration and commercial shipping in the area
increases, the agency's commandant told a US Senate subcommittee Thursday.
Climate change and the retreating polar icepack makes the Arctic more
accessible, and the Coast Guard must have emergency search and rescue and oil
spill responses and be able to provide security in regions with virtually no
infrastructure, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen told the Homeland
Security subcommittee.
Shell has major exploration efforts underway in the Alaska Beaufort and
Chukchi Sea regions, and commercial cruise ships now transit both seas.
The Coast Guard is particularly concerned about the Bering Strait
connecting the Bering and Chukchi seas, which would be the Pacific gateway to
the Arctic, Allen said.
"The US is an Arctic nation. As the ice edge continues to recede in the
summer, the extent of navigable waters increase. As we adjust to this dynamic,
it is critical to recognize that the Arctic region as environmentally fragile,
rich in natural resources and of significant national importance and
international interest," Allen said in a prepared statement.
The hearing was chaired by Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski.
Allen told the panel that the Coast Guard has found that its small
vessels perform well in Arctic waters, but that there are problems with
helicopters, communications and inadequate mapping.
The US has only two operating icebreakers with polar capabilities, one a
medium quasi-research vessel now at work mapping the Arctic continental shelf.
A third, mothballed polar icebreaker was now being refurbished, Allen said.
What was needed was a new US polar icebreaker, he added.
The US Arctic Research Commission, an advisory panel to the federal
government, agreed but believed two new icebreakers were needed, its chairman,
Mead Treadwell, told the subcommittee.
Edward Itta, mayor of the North Slope Borough, the regional government
for northern Alaska, told the subcommittee he supports pipelines bringing oil
and gas discovered in the Outer Continental Shelf ashore rather than the
offshore loading of tankers, which poses a significant risk of spill.
Itta also called for the government to require tankers operating in the
Alaskan Beaufort and Chukchi seas to have Alaska-licensed pilots, similar to
requirements for coastal waters in southern Alaska.
The government needs to do a better job of assessing environmental risks
of offshore petroleum development, particularly the cumulative effects of
multiple projects, he said. "There has been a lot of resistance to this by the
government," Itta added.
The lack of adequate risk assessment for planned Beaufort and Chukchi sea
exploration forced the borough to seek court injunctions that had stopped work
by Shell in both regions, he said.
Treadwell said the Arctic Research Commission felt the immediate need was
for an Arctic offshore oil spill research program. He said the government had
been lax in meeting obligations for such research under the 1990 Oil Pollution
Act, which was passed by Congress after the massive Exxon Valdez spill in
southern Alaska in 1989.
--Tim Bradner, newsdesk@platts.com
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