Can't Say Arctic Oil Exploration?

The word “leakage” is not unfamiliar. In fact, for a long time last year, these two words occupied the most important pages of major media. Last year, BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shocked the world, and the shadow of the accident has not yet completely dispersed. Today, Shell’s oil spill accidents in the drilling platform in the North Sea region of the United Kingdom continue. There are currently more than 55,000 gallons of oil flowing into the sea.

Although the oil spill occurred in the British waters, it will also become a nightmare for the Obama administration. Because the Obama administration has just approved the shell of a deep-sea exploration project in the Beaufort Sea on the northeast coast of Alaska. According to the plan, Shell will build four exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea and the project will start next summer. Shell is now waiting for approval from relevant agencies including the US Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Fisheries, and the State Oceanic Administration.

For the United States, which has experienced oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, oil spills are scars that are unwilling to be mentioned. The government tried to resolve the situation and it was finally difficult to restart the deep-sea oil drilling project. Every project approval government is now extremely cautious, for fear that it will be opposed again. On such an eye, shells that had just been approved by the government for deep-sea exploration projects had an accident. Although the incident occurred in the United Kingdom, it appears to the American public that this oil is no different from what is leaking in its own waters. The scars that had not yet been completely healed were reopened. The U.S. government once again attracted a buzz.

Some people may think this is a bad luck for the government, but I think the government should really come to an emergency stop. We cannot afford to bear the consequences of this rash move. Even in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea, deep-sea drilling projects are frequent accidents, not to mention the Arctic, which is several times worse than the natural environment. Where we do not have the necessary infrastructure, there is no relevant development experience or knowledge to learn from. No one can guarantee that deep-sea drilling projects can be carried out without fail in such a natural environment. Developing Arctic oil and gas resources may be a crazy idea in itself.

In a survey report issued by the Investigation Commission for the Gulf of Mexico accident, it was particularly emphasized that the government should treat the development of oil and gas in the Arctic region with caution and take the Gulf of Mexico oil spill accident as a warning, and fully consider the risk of developing oil and gas resources in the Arctic. For the little known Arctic ecosystem, we need to conduct extensive research. Blindly developing it is bound to undermine the local ecological environment. In addition, in the extremely harsh environment, how to ensure the supervision of the project, how to ensure that the project does not cause problems, and how to discover problems in a timely manner have not yet been resolved.

Shell's oil spill accident in the North Sea may be accidental, but successive oil spill accidents are also reminding us that eager to develop deep-sea oil and gas resources but ignore these unresolved issues, humans will eventually suffer from its own consequences.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico claimed the lives of 11 workers and led to an irretrievable ecological disaster. Although the U.S. government has repeatedly stated that they have confidence in controlling the situation as soon as possible, the situation is still out of reach. The Gulf of Mexico is one of the centers of the global offshore oil industry, where hundreds of companies are engaged in oil exploration and development. There are a large number of oil tankers and infrastructure that can guarantee that they will rush to the scene to rescue or assist as soon as possible after the accident. Even so, the government still spent nearly 5 months to control the situation and blocked the oil spill. However, there is still a large amount of crude oil that has leaked, contaminating large areas of the sea. Pre-commitment that multiple insurances that can prevent accidents all fail, and none can stop the accident at the last minute.

Under such protective measures, such a major accident still occurred. The government dispatched 50,000 workers and 7,000 tankers still took five months to control the situation. And even if the last oil spill point was successfully blocked, the oil that has already leaked and the ecosystems that have suffered a catastrophic disaster cannot be remedied. If such an oil spill occurs in the Arctic, where does the government assemble so many fishing boats? How can workers perform operations under such extremely harsh natural conditions?

Returning to Shell’s Arctic oil exploration project, although it repeatedly claimed that it had foolproof protective facilities, it could block oil wells for the first time, and was equipped with a helicopter to conduct random monitoring. However, the North Sea oil spill accident made this paper’s promise appear pale and powerless. . However, it is regrettable that there is news that the Ocean Energy Administration will approve the project in the near future. This project, which is tantamount to "high-altitude tightrope," will continue.

What was mentioned earlier is only a risk that we can foresee. There are still many unknown risks in the Arctic, which has never been developed. As oil resources become increasingly scarce and humans are constantly searching for new projects, we need more knowledge, more sophisticated equipment, and more reliable technologies. Not only should we improve the safety factor of the project, but we must also improve our ability to cope after an accident. After all, no one can guarantee the safety of the project. Before doing so, the government should really stop the development of the Arctic, and let the Arctic, the last untapped pure land on Earth, be further away from the dangers that would otherwise fall outside of it, and further away.