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Page added on July 25, 2014
Arctic Oil Well Blowout Could Spread More Than 1,000 Km
Oil from a spill or oil well blowout in the Arctic waters of Canada’s Beaufort Sea could easily become trapped in sea ice and potentially spread more than 1,000 kilometres to the west coast of Alaska, a World Wildlife Fund study showed on Friday.
The WWF contracted RPS Applied Science Associates to model 22 different oil spill scenarios and map the spread of the oil, potential impact on the water and shoreline, and interaction with sea ice, wildlife and the surrounding ecology.
Types of oil spills analysed included shipping spills, shallow-water blowouts and deep-water blowouts. The BP Plc Macondo oil well rupture in 2010 that unleashed more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was a deep-water blowout.
The remote Beaufort Sea is a section of the Arctic Ocean that spans the Canada-U.S. border. It comprises about 476,000 square kilometres (184,000 square miles) off the northern coasts of Alaska, and Canada’s Yukon and Northwest territories, and until recently was packed with sea ice even in summer.
But as the Arctic gets warmer and the ice retreats, shipping lanes have opened up and oil companies are hungrily eyeing the 90 billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates lie beneath the Arctic Ocean, amounting to almost three years of global demand.
Conoco Phillips and Statoil both have Arctic exploration programs but hazards in the inhospitable region are high. Royal Dutch Shell has not resumed its Arctic drilling program since a drilling rig ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.
“Development in the Arctic is fraught with risks, and drilling for oil in the Beaufort Sea is exceptionally risky, especially in deep waters,” said David Miller, president and chief execuive of WWF-Canada.
“This work will help ensure that we all can see how even minor spills can have major impacts, and that these potential consequences are fully considered in planning decisions.”
11 Comments on "Arctic Oil Well Blowout Could Spread More Than 1,000 Km"
Plantagenet on Fri, 25th Jul 2014 3:11 pm
Someone should explain this to Canada before they grant more oil leases in the Beaufort Sea.
J-Gav on Fri, 25th Jul 2014 3:58 pm
Discount the future, trash the joint (otherwise known as the planet Earth), anything to keep BAU goin’. ‘Cuz NO leader, male or female, anywhere, is gonna want it to happen under their watch, n’est-ce pas?
rockman on Fri, 25th Jul 2014 4:08 pm
J-Gav – Right on, bro! I’m with you. I don’t live on the Arctic shore line so no differs for me. OTOH I do live along the GOM along with millions of my neighbors who would be negatively affected as they were with Macondo. Why should millions of Americans be more concerned about the Arctic then the GOM? Next thing you know they’ll want us to start fretting the bodies piling up in the Middle East.
Some folks just have their priorities all screwed up. LOL.
Nony on Fri, 25th Jul 2014 5:32 pm
Drill. Baby. Drill.
Makati1 on Fri, 25th Jul 2014 9:35 pm
It’s ALL about money…
rockman on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 2:54 am
M – Exactly. US federal law as per the SEC requires public companies to maximize value for their shareholders. Failure to do so runs the risk of large fines, lawsuits and possible prison sentences.
Hate the game…not the players. LOL.
rockman on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 10:00 am
Dang…you guys disappointed me: I expected more than a few would chew me out for pretending the Arctic environment isn’t worth worrying about. LOL.
Davy on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 10:12 am
Rock, shows how you rate on this forum.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 11:58 am
rockman — Your cutting sarcasm stood on its own. When I read that comment yesterday I thought yep, that’s about how I’d say it too if I was in the mood.
rockman on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 2:42 pm
Unfortunately many have weak sarcasm radar so I’m often forced to use too many “LOL’s”. I just thought I would try being an ass sans the LOL this time.
But on a serious note: fouling up the Arctic would definitely be a shame. But compare the human impact on that tiny number of Arctic human residents vs the millions impacted by BP’s foolishness. Just no comparison IMHO. On the outskirts of Churchill I was lucky 10 years ago to stare eyeball to eyeball with a wild and free polar bear just 5′ away. I would hate to see anything bad happen to that big momma. OTOH it was rather uncomfortable dealing with one of my field hands who was the uncle of one of the crew killed at Macondo. Especial when his own adult son was killed in an auto accident just 10 days earlier. Obviously makes a big difference when you know the faces/families instead of just reading their names in the press release…and then forgetting them just as quickly.
As much as you try you can’t forget. Like the name of a drilling superintended I knew who tried unsuccessfully to function the BOP while the rest of the hands ran to their escape capsules. Just like that guy’s nephew all they could do is bury an empty coffin. Sort of a bayou thing: even if you don’t recover the body you have a memorial, a mass, go to the cemetery and conduct services. And no: I stopped attending years ago. Like when a geologist, one of my best friends, was lost with no body recovery.
Well, that’s pretty f*cking gloomy for a sunny Saturday afternoon. Sorry about that, chief. LOL.
J-Gav on Sat, 26th Jul 2014 3:22 pm
Rock – “Hate the game, not the players.” Good quote, but without the players there would be no game. I’m not saying the players should be ‘hated,’ there’s too little time in life for hate as far as I’m concerned, only that they are in the best situation to CHANGE the game, and should be encouraged to take advantage of that position in order to do so.