Shipping largest risk in Arctic oil exploration

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By Daniel Frykholm
HELSINKI (Reuters) – A major oil spill from a tanker is the main danger to the Arctic environment if oil exploration increases in the region, not drilling which is increasingly clean, the author of an eight-nation survey said.

“Shipping has always had risk associated with it, mariners have known that for centuries. There is no such thing as a safe ship — the Titanic was one,” said Dennis Thurston, one of two lead writers of the study, due to be published next year.

“The fear is that an increased search for oil is going to impact the Arctic, but the experience we’ve had is that activity has already peaked,” he told Reuters in an interview Friday.

Reuters