Exploring for Oil in the Arctic’s ‘Great Frontier’

These days, the frontiers of oil exploration include the waters north of Alaska. Nobody knows how much energy is hidden beneath the Arctic waves. But oil companies want to find out.

A federal court blocked Royal Dutch Shell proposal to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea, above Alaska’s northern coast. But the company is still trying. And its story tells you a lot about the forces shaping the Arctic’s future.
Shell knows the Beaufort Sea because the company found oil in the same place two decades ago. The people on the drill ship then included Rick Fox, who now leads Shell’s Alaska operation.

“I remember as a young man, standing out there and watching all the crystals of ice in the air, when the sun was out,” Fox says. “It was just like zillions of lights, and dry, cold. I remember how peaceful it was. At times it was so still and quiet, especially when there was ice on the water. It is an amazing place, it is an amazing place.

Shell concluded the opportunity wasn’t amazing enough — and it never exploited the offshore oil that it found years ago.

Today, the technology is better, the price of oil is higher, new oil reserves are less available. And Shell has reconsidered the Alaskan Arctic.

“We think it’s a great frontier ….” Fox says. “The belief is that about 25 percent of the world’s remaining reserves are in the Arctic. And I think it’s a major play for us.”

The Shell manager does acknowledge that Arctic summers are getting longer. Oil company ships have more time to explore before the winter ice returns.

But Shell did not get to drill this summer. The effects of climate change are more complicated than they might seem.

NPR