Alaskan Oil:
1968 → vast onshore fields were discovered at Prudhoe Bay
○ Oil production began in 1977
○ Almost 2 million barrels a day were produced
● 800 km trans-Alaskan oil pipeline was built to transport the oil to Valdez
○ Oil tankers could not be used due to ice in northern seas
○ Pipeline took 5 years and $8 billion to build → was seen as a price worth paying in the 1970s
■ Rising oil prices and political problems in the Middle East
■ Left USA desperate to improve its own energy security
● Engineers made modifications to the TA pipeline → helped overcome environmental problems
○ Pipeline was raised above ground on stilts → cost $3, 000 each to build
○ Pipeline suspension bridges were used to cross the state’s major rivers (eg/ 700 m wide River Yukon)
○ Pipeline zigzags in some places → is flexible and can adjust to ground movement from earthquakes
● Overtime, Prudhoe Bay’s oil production has declined
○ Peaked in 1980s → Alaska produced ¼ of all US oil
○ Today → ongoing battles over costs/benefits of drilling for new oil
○ 2005 → US Senate voted to block a proposal for drilling for oil in Alaska
⇒ Advantages and disadvantages of oil production in Alaska:
Future development issues of offshore oil fields:
● Alaska’s offshore waters are also a source of oil extraction → but have controversy around them
○ 30 billion barrels of recoverable oil/trillions of m 3 of gas is beneath Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean
○ Most of Beaufort is open to exploration
■ Big companies like Shell began exploratory undersea drilling in 2012
■ Supporting offshore drilling is a tough decision for Inupiat
● Rely on oil industry for jobs but still want to protect wildlife
● FNo drilling allowed off the coast of Kaktovik and Barrow
○ Waters are homes to bowhead whales
○ Inupiat residents don’t want to disturb the whales
● Drilling ban in Bristol Bay to protect the area’s sockeye salmon fishery