SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
According to New IEA Chief, Arctic Drilling Is Stupid Business
From perspective of profitability alone, chief says such extraction not currently viable
Sep 18, 2015
The demand to keep Arctic oil and gas in the ground has become a rallying call of climate campaigners worldwide. Now, Fatih Birol, the new executive director of the powerful International Energy Agency, is questioning the global race to drill from a purely business perspective--arguing that geological and technological limitations, as well as rising costs of production, make such extraction simply unprofitable.
"I believe that Arctic oil is not for today, and not for tomorrow--maybe for the day after tomorrow," Birol told the Guardian in an article published Friday. "It's geologically difficult, technologically difficult, lots of environmental challenges, and the cost of production is very, very high, especially if you look at the current oil price levels."
Birol did not call for a ban on the controversial drilling, but instead urged caution from a profit-making perspective.
"It should be an assessment of the oil company, whether or not they see [a business case] at those prices [for oil], or at those costs [of production]--whether or not it could be a profitable project," he stated. "I think the companies should look at all these risks combined. It is up to them to make or lose money."
Birol's statements come amid growing calls to place people and the planet over profit by leaving fossil fuels in the ground.
Such demands follow numerous scientific findings that, in order to stave off climate crisis, such resources must remain almost completely untapped. A study published earlier this year in the journal Nature by University College London researchers concluded that, in order to prevent a temperature rise of 2 degC above the average global temperature of pre-industrial times, almost all fossil fuels must stay in the ground--including 100 percent of Arctic oil and gas.
Shell's Arctic drilling bid has been met with fierce protest and direct actions, but despite these efforts, the oil giant is currently moving forward with plans for exploratory drilling. Earlier this week, Shell's chief executive Ben van Beurden told BBC that he does not expect to begin commercial drilling until at least 2020.
In response, Bill Snape, senior counsel to the Center for Biological Diversity, told Common Dreams: "When a U.S. permittee is admitting they are still half a decade away from commercial drilling, you have to wonder from an environmental point of view why we are entertaining this folly at all."
Snape added that "it is not surprising that outside the political context of campaign contributions or even outright corruption," Birol would reach the conclusion that "drilling for oil in the Arctic is absolute folly."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
The demand to keep Arctic oil and gas in the ground has become a rallying call of climate campaigners worldwide. Now, Fatih Birol, the new executive director of the powerful International Energy Agency, is questioning the global race to drill from a purely business perspective--arguing that geological and technological limitations, as well as rising costs of production, make such extraction simply unprofitable.
"I believe that Arctic oil is not for today, and not for tomorrow--maybe for the day after tomorrow," Birol told the Guardian in an article published Friday. "It's geologically difficult, technologically difficult, lots of environmental challenges, and the cost of production is very, very high, especially if you look at the current oil price levels."
Birol did not call for a ban on the controversial drilling, but instead urged caution from a profit-making perspective.
"It should be an assessment of the oil company, whether or not they see [a business case] at those prices [for oil], or at those costs [of production]--whether or not it could be a profitable project," he stated. "I think the companies should look at all these risks combined. It is up to them to make or lose money."
Birol's statements come amid growing calls to place people and the planet over profit by leaving fossil fuels in the ground.
Such demands follow numerous scientific findings that, in order to stave off climate crisis, such resources must remain almost completely untapped. A study published earlier this year in the journal Nature by University College London researchers concluded that, in order to prevent a temperature rise of 2 degC above the average global temperature of pre-industrial times, almost all fossil fuels must stay in the ground--including 100 percent of Arctic oil and gas.
Shell's Arctic drilling bid has been met with fierce protest and direct actions, but despite these efforts, the oil giant is currently moving forward with plans for exploratory drilling. Earlier this week, Shell's chief executive Ben van Beurden told BBC that he does not expect to begin commercial drilling until at least 2020.
In response, Bill Snape, senior counsel to the Center for Biological Diversity, told Common Dreams: "When a U.S. permittee is admitting they are still half a decade away from commercial drilling, you have to wonder from an environmental point of view why we are entertaining this folly at all."
Snape added that "it is not surprising that outside the political context of campaign contributions or even outright corruption," Birol would reach the conclusion that "drilling for oil in the Arctic is absolute folly."
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
The demand to keep Arctic oil and gas in the ground has become a rallying call of climate campaigners worldwide. Now, Fatih Birol, the new executive director of the powerful International Energy Agency, is questioning the global race to drill from a purely business perspective--arguing that geological and technological limitations, as well as rising costs of production, make such extraction simply unprofitable.
"I believe that Arctic oil is not for today, and not for tomorrow--maybe for the day after tomorrow," Birol told the Guardian in an article published Friday. "It's geologically difficult, technologically difficult, lots of environmental challenges, and the cost of production is very, very high, especially if you look at the current oil price levels."
Birol did not call for a ban on the controversial drilling, but instead urged caution from a profit-making perspective.
"It should be an assessment of the oil company, whether or not they see [a business case] at those prices [for oil], or at those costs [of production]--whether or not it could be a profitable project," he stated. "I think the companies should look at all these risks combined. It is up to them to make or lose money."
Birol's statements come amid growing calls to place people and the planet over profit by leaving fossil fuels in the ground.
Such demands follow numerous scientific findings that, in order to stave off climate crisis, such resources must remain almost completely untapped. A study published earlier this year in the journal Nature by University College London researchers concluded that, in order to prevent a temperature rise of 2 degC above the average global temperature of pre-industrial times, almost all fossil fuels must stay in the ground--including 100 percent of Arctic oil and gas.
Shell's Arctic drilling bid has been met with fierce protest and direct actions, but despite these efforts, the oil giant is currently moving forward with plans for exploratory drilling. Earlier this week, Shell's chief executive Ben van Beurden told BBC that he does not expect to begin commercial drilling until at least 2020.
In response, Bill Snape, senior counsel to the Center for Biological Diversity, told Common Dreams: "When a U.S. permittee is admitting they are still half a decade away from commercial drilling, you have to wonder from an environmental point of view why we are entertaining this folly at all."
Snape added that "it is not surprising that outside the political context of campaign contributions or even outright corruption," Birol would reach the conclusion that "drilling for oil in the Arctic is absolute folly."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.