Beaufort

President Obama’s decision to place the entire Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea off-limits to energy development is “stunning” and will deny economic opportunity, according to a trio of powerful elected officials, all of them Republican, representing Alaska.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas will offer more than 5,000 tracts of state-owned acreage for oil and natural gas leasing Dec. 14 in the Beaufort Sea Areawide 2016W, North Slope Areawide 2016W and North Slope Foothills Areawide 2016 lease sales.

The Obama administration on Friday imposed more barriers to explore for oil and natural gas offshore Alaska, angering state officials, legislators and industry groups, but the Department of Interior indicated that it hasn’t ruled out future exploration activity.

After surviving the shale gale, the aborted northern pipeline race and the 2008-2009 recession, the vision of Arctic wealth awaiting drilling beneath Canadian waters of the Beaufort Sea is also outlasting the current natural gas and oil price slump.

Chevron Corp. is putting on indefinite hold plans to drill in Canada’s Beaufort Sea because of “economic uncertainty” in the industry.

Arctic gas and oil hunters have been spared having to conduct environmental assessments twice on their plans to return to Canadian waters of the Beaufort Sea.

As the 2010 BP plc Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico fades from memory, Canadian authorities say they are willing to consider dropping a decades-old safety requirement for the next northern offshore drilling campaign.

A revival of offshore drilling in the Arctic has emerged as an industrial user for a “roads-to-resources” development that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched this week on the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories (NWT).

The search for natural gas and oil in ever more remote regions is drawing more prospectors to the U.S. Arctic Ocean, which includes Alaska waters, but there aren’t enough safeguards in place to ensure accidents can be managed, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.