Concerns loom over BP Amoco Arctic pipeline
Copyright 2000, Chicago Tribune
Tuesday, March 28, 2000
By Vincent J. Schodolski, Chicago Tribune
The huge green dump trucks appear on the stark horizon with a choreographed precision that continues with only the briefest of interruption 24 hours a day despite temperatures that sometimes dip to 70 degrees below zero.
On Seal Island, Alaska, which has become ground zero in the latest standoff between giant oil companies and environmentalists in the Arctic, trucks roll out 6 miles onto the ice pack. Oil exploration workers have converted the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean into ice highways, two roads six to eight lanes wide that in a few months will dissolve into water.
Men bundled into shapeless masses by their cold weather gear stand by as the trucks deposit ton and after ton of gravel on this artificial island that is to become the platform for a new oil production facility.
The battle over this facility and the controversial undersea pipeline that will carry the oil and gas to shore has been fought even as oil ministers meet this week in Vienna to consider raising production, a move that could provide some relief to consumers.
That 6-mile pipeline, buried in a trench in the sea floor, has enraged environmentalists and some native residents of the area. Despite pledges that the chances of a spill are minimal, the pipeline has led to protests on the Arctic ice pack and in the confines of shareholder meetings of the company behind the new development, BP Amoco.
Native Alaskans and environmental groups, most notably Greenpeace, warn that because the sea is frozen, or filled with huge ice floes almost 10 months of the year, a spill or leak from the pipeline would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to clean up. Native populations that depend on seals, whales and other marine mammals for food and traditional hunting could be at risk, as could the delicate ecosystems that support thousands of species of birds and rare Arctic flora and fauna. Also at risk, the environmentalists say, are the thousands of polar bears and seals that inhabit the ice pack most of the year.
BP Amoco executives, however, say the $686 million project has been engineered with such attention to detail and with three complementary early-warning systems that a spill of any size is a near impossibility.
Northstar, as the BP Amoco production facility and pipeline is called, will mark the first time oil will be pumped out of the Arctic sea bed and then delivered to shore via an underground pipeline.
When pumping begins in November 2001, initial production is expected to average about 65,000 barrels a day of crude oil and 100 million cubic feet of natural gas.
The field is thought to contain the equivalent in crude and gas reserves of between 150 million and 175 million barrels of oil. While this is a significant amount, it represents a moderate-size field, far smaller than the giant Endicott field about 20 miles to the east.
"I have never seen a project with such environmental concern built into it," said Peter Hanley, manager of permitting for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., talking about the measures BP Amoco has taken to protect the pipeline and prevent leakage.
Hanley, who has worked in the Alaskan oil business for decades, said that since the project began in 1995, the design and engineering of the pipeline has evolved thanks to stringent regulation by state and federal authorities.
But that has not quelled fears of some residents in this far northern stretch of Alaska.
Local officials are concerned about the short- and long-term effects. "There is definitely going to be a lot of impact as a result of this," said George Ahmaogak, mayor of Alaska's North Slope Borough, the far northern Alaskan county where the Northstar operation is located.
He said that in addition to fears of a spill, native Alaskans are concerned about the noise generated by the construction and production, noise that could force migrating bullhead whales farther out to sea and beyond the reach of traditional hunters.
He also noted that BP Amoco failed a state test of its oil spill containment and clean-up plans for the Northstar project last autumn and that although the company assured native Alaskans that it would be up to the job before production begins, there was no guarantee.
"There is no insurance here in the case of a worst case scenario of a spill," he said, adding that residents also are worried about how the above-ground portion of the pipeline is constructed, mainly about how it could affect migrating caribou.
He said he had asked government agencies and BP Amoco to pay for an insurance policy that would compensate native Alaskans for damage done by a spill, but so far no party had agreed to pay for such a policy.
BP Amoco says it has revised its designs for the Northstar project and built in so many new features and safety measures that fears of Alaskans and environmentalists are unfounded.
When the first environmental impact study was conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers five years ago, the corps concluded there was a one-in-four chance of a spill of 1,000 barrels or more.
BP Amoco's Hanley said that first study was largely theoretical and based on similar pipeline facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. "The evolution of the technology [used in Northstar] was not taken into account," he said.
As a result of subsequent studies and design changes, the threat of a spill of 1,000 barrels or more has been reduced dramatically.
The final environmental impact statement completed a year ago by the Corps of Engineers concluded there was only a 1.6 percent to 2.4 percent chance of a 1,000 barrel or more spill.
"The project never would have been permitted if anyone thought there was a one-in-four chance of a spill," said Hanley.
But environmentalists, who insist the project should be abandoned because it could cause ecological damage, also have another agenda.
They believe the money spent on Northstar would be better invested in vastly expanding production of solar panels to a level where the cost of solar energy could effectively compete with that of power generated by burning fossil fuels.
To make its point, Greenpeace activists established a small camp on the Arctic ice about a mile-and-a-half from the Northstar site and regularly skirt the edge of BP Amoco's property on snow machines. Several Greenpeace members have been arrested for trespassing on the company's property.
As part of their effort to block the nearly completed project — the pipeline is scheduled to be in place within the next two weeks — Greenpeace, in conjunction with a financial advisory group that focuses on "socially responsible" investments, has acquired 120,000 shares of BP Amoco stock.That has enabled the investors, grouped in an organization called SANE BP, to place a resolution before BP Amoco shareholders proposing that Northstar be canceled and the money made available instead to BP Solarex, a BP Amoco subsidiary, to substantially increase solar panel production."We are not asking BP to go broke," said Dan Ritzman, who works with Greenpeace's Climate Campaign in Anchorage and is one of those who expects to attend the annual shareholders' meeting in London on April 13 where the results of a shareholder vote on the proposal will be revealed.
Ritzman said Greenpeace believes the resolution provides the company an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to reducing the amount of energy produced by burning fossil fuels, which the environmental group believes contributes to global warning.
"We are just asking them to put their money where their mouth is," said Ritzman, referring to BP Amoco's pledge to move to cleaner energy sources. Greenpeace does not expect the resolution to be accepted by a majority of shareholders, but the group's officials do think they can get between 7 percent and 10 percent of shareholders' votes.
Ritzman said the ecological activists would consider those results a victory that send "a big message" to the company.
BP Amoco officials said they do not think the challenge will succeed because most shareholders are satisfied with the job the company is doing with Northstar.
Ronnie Chappell, director of external communications for BP Exploration (Alaska), said the company is convinced that shareholders understand the extent to which BP Amoco has sought to protect the Arctic environment.
Chappell was among those BP officials who noted that trucks and other vehicles operating on the ice pack have diaper-like pads attached to their undercarriages to catch even a drop of oil or fuel before it can touch the ice.
With production expected to begin late next year, BP Amoco says it is ready for a long period of watchful waiting. "This is a project that has received a lot of scrutiny, more scrutiny than the Trans-Alaska Pipeline," said company spokesman Chappell.
"We know the world is watching."