ASRC Energy Services’ Marine Services has proposed to conduct pre-drilling seismic testing to perform shallow hazards and site clearance surveys, which are required by the MMS prior to exploration well drilling in the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf.

On Feb. 6, MMS held the first oil and gas lease sale in more than 15 years. The Chukchi Sea sale, which brought in a total of 667 bids and garnered $2.66 billion, is the largest lease sale in Alaska’s history.

The proposed 100-day seismic survey with the research vessel Mt. Mitchell is set to take place the middle of July or when the area is clear of sea ice.

The archeological assessment surveys will use Echosounders, side scan sonar, seismic systems and a magnetometer that will cover a grid over the seafloor with depths of 2,625 feet to 3,281 feet below the surface.

MMS requires the survey for safety to ensure that ships, aircraft or other hazards are identified before drilling activity commences.

The news came during a presentation to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Committee members in Barrow, Point Hope and Wainwright earlier this month by ASRC Energy Services. The presentation included former whaling commission executive director Maggie Ahmaogak, ASRC Energy Services’ OCS program development manager Jan Lage, ASRC Energy’s administrative assistant Edith Vorderstrasse.

Lage refused to comment to the Journal about the proposed activity.

A lawsuit was filed in Alaska Federal Court on Jan. 31 by the Native village of Point Hope, the city of Point Hope, the Inupiat community of the Arctic Slope and the group Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands Network to block the lease sale, which opened up 30 million acres of the sea to oil and gas activities.

Officials with the village of Point Hope indicated that although the residents of the village are shareholders of ASRC that they had no comment about the proposed seismic activity except to say that the corporation considers its shareholders’ comments as advisory.

“Our opinions are taken only as advisory information, and the corporation does not honor the demands of the shareholders,” said Jack Schaefer, with the Native village of Point Hope.

A federal court upheld an injunction blocking Shell Oil from exploring for gas and oil in the Beaufort Sea on Aug. 15. The drilling plan was initially halted in July after several conservation groups, as well as the North Slope Borough and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, filed a joint lawsuit.

The North Slope Borough has traditionally opposed offshore exploration in the Beaufort Sea.

Borough spokesperson David Harding indicated that the borough generally opposes offshore seismic activity because it disturbs bowhead whale migration and sea mammal activity.

Residents of the villages rely on bowhead and other sea mammals for subsistence food.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.