Second oil company exits Arctic amid fierce Indigenous opposition, energy squeeze

Source: Second oil company exits Arctic amid fierce Indigenous opposition, energy squeeze

• Knik Arm Services is the second oil company to cancel its oil and gas lease for a tract of land in the largest wildlife reserve in America, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, following fierce opposition by the Indigenous Gwich’in committee and environmental groups.
• The Biden administration is intent on continuing Trump-era policies by supporting oil drilling in Alaska’s northern slope amid rising energy costs in the country – despite the president’s campaign promises to ban new oil and gas leases.
• Land in the refuge will still be available for lease to oil and gas companies in 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management told Mongabay
• Drilling and subsequent infrastructure development in the Arctic would have significant impacts on the tundra and would be disruptive to wildlife like caribou and polar bears.

The Gwich’in people of northern Alaska were disappointed when the Democratic-held U.S. Congress did not include a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) – an area the Trump administration officially opened to future drilling in 2017. However, for decades now, the Gwich’in Steering Committee has taken the protection of the Arctic’s Coastal Plain into their own hands and mounted a fierce opposition against oil drilling in the region – resulting in the exit of the second oil company last month.

“These exits clearly demonstrate that companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous peoples,” said the Gwich’in Steering Committee in a press statement.

When the Gwich’in people learned that the Coastal Plain of the ANWR would be at risk from oil development during the second year of the Trump administration, they doubled down on their efforts to encourage banks and insurance companies to align with Indigenous rights and speak out against oil and gas development on the reserve. The Gwich’in people have been fighting for the protection of ANWR’s Coastal Plain since the 1980s after Congress passed a law that safeguarded only 80 percent of the reserve, leaving out an area critical to the livelihood of Indigenous groups in northern Alaska – its Coastal Plain. Lease auctions began in 2021.

According to the committee, 29 global banks have implemented a policy to decline underwriting oil and gas projects on the refuge and 14 international insurances companies have said they will not insure development projects in ANWR.

On August 16, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) canceled Knik Arm Services’ (KAS) 19,669-hectare (48,603-acre) lease in the Coastal Plain of ANWR after the company indicated it wanted to finally give up its tract just 19 months after purchasing its lease. BLM told Mongabay that it has since directed the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) to refund KAS to the tune of over $2 million.