Boertmann, D., Mosbech, A., Schiedek, D. & Johansen, K. (eds) 2009.
This document is a preliminary Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) of activities related to exploration, development and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the sea off <st1:place w:st="on">Northwest Greenland</st1:place> between 71° and 78° N. The KANUMAS West area (Figure 1).
The KANUMAS project was a regional seismic exploration programme that was initiated at the end of 1989. A group of companies, the KANUMAS group, was then granted a prospecting licence to the KANUMAS areas. The Kanumas areas also encompass the Greenland part of the <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland Sea</st1:place> – the KANUMAS East area.
The prospecting licence did not include any exclusive rights to the licensee. The licence implied a considerable obligation of exploration. This was balanced by granting the companies a special preferential position for the KANUMAS group. This preferential position will be activated if the right to petroleum exploration in Northeast and <st1:place w:st="on">Northwest Greenland</st1:place> is put up for licensing.
The SEIA was prepared by the National Environmental Research Institute, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denmark</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in cooperation with the Greenland Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum.
The assessment area is shown in Figure 1. This is the region which potentially could be impacted by a large oil spill deriving from activities within the expected licence areas, although drift modelling indicates that oil may drift further than the extent of this area.
The expected activities in the ‘full life cycle’ of a petroleum field are briefly described. Exploration activities are likely to take place during summer and autumn, because harsh weather and particularly sea ice hamper activities in winter and spring. However, if oil production is initiated activities will take place throughout the year.
The environment
The physical conditions of the study area are briefly described with focus on oceanography and ice conditions. Sea ice and icebergs are present throughout the year, with the lightest conditions in the period July-October. One of the most important physical features of the biological environment is the polynyas (ice-free or almots ice-free areas surrounded by sea ice), of which the most important is the North Water between the Qaanaaq area and Ellesmere Island in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> . Polynyas become free of ice very early in spring (April) and also have ice-free parts throughout the winter, and particularly the North Water is an important winter habitat for marine mammals. Another important feature is the shear zone along the fast ice. Here open water often occurs in winter.
An updated account of some of the physical conditions is under preparation by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).
The study area is situated within the Arctic region, with all the typical biological properties of this climatic region: low biodiversity but often numerous and dense animal populations; a relatively simple food web from primary producers to top predators and with a few species playing a key role in the ecology of the region (Figure 10). In the marine environment the most significant event is the spring bloom of planktonic algae, the primary producers in the food web. These are grazed upon by zooplankton, including the important copepods Calanus, which is one of the key species groups in the marine ecosystem (Figure 10).
Benthos is the fauna living on and in the seabed. Benthic macrofauna species are an important component of coastal ecosystems. They consume a significant fraction of the available production and are in turn an important food source for fish, seabirds and mammals. Very little is known on the benthos communities in the assessment area.
Northern shrimp is found in the southern part of the assessment area and a commercial fishery takes place here.
In and on the underside of the sea ice a specialised community exists: the sympagic flora and fauna. Algae live in and on the ice and are grazed upon by crustaceans, which again sustain populations of polar cod and Arctic cod.
Fish, seabirds and marine mammals represent some of the higher trophic levels in the marine environment, where polar bear and man are the top predators.
The fish fauna is low in diversity, but some species are important. The polar cod is very numerous, both pelagic and associated with the ice, and constitutes a major food resource for seals, whales and seabirds. It is one of the key species. Other important species are <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut and locally Arctic char.
Seabirds are locally abundant with several species present in the study area in summer and spring. Many species breed in dense colonies mainly close to the polynyas, where dense aggregations of birds can be found as early as May. In spring and autumn millions of seabirds migrate through the area on their passage between breeding sites in Northwest Greenland and Arctic Canada and winter grounds in Southwest Greenland and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Newfoundland</st1:place></st1:State> . Some of the most important species are northern fulmar, common eider, thick-billed murre, little auk, black-legged kittiwake and ivory gull (Table 1). Almost all the marine birds leave the area for the winter to return in April and May. Thick-billed murre, common eider, black-legged kittiwake and ivory gull are all red-listed in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> due to declining populations. Other red-listed bird species which occur in the marine part of the assessment area include Sabines gull, Arctic tern and Atlantic puffin.
Furthermore, some species are designated as species of national responsibility, which means that the population in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> is so large that the local management of the species is vital to the entire population). The most important of these species is the little auk, as an estimated 80 % of the global population breed on the coasts of the former Qaanaaq municipality. Other national responsibility species are black guillemot and light-bellied brent goose.
Marine mammals are significant components of the marine ecosystem. Four species of seals as well as walrus, many species of whales and polar bear occur in the assessment area. The most important species is narwhal, white whale, bowhead whale, walrus, ringed seal and polar bear (Table 2). They are often associated with ice edges, polynyas or shear zones, where open water is present.
Polar bear, walrus, bowhead whale, white whale and narwhal are all red-listed because their populations are declining or are expected to decline because of climate change (polar bear).
Human use of natural resources occurs throughout the assessment area, except for the most offshore parts. Subsistence hunting (marine mammals and seabirds) and subsistence fishery takes place near the towns and settlements. Commercial fishery takes place in the southern part of the assessment area and is aimed at <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut and northern shrimp. Greenland halibut and northern shrimp catches in offshore waters constitute a small proportion of the total Greenlandic catch, while the inshore fishery of <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut in the former Uummannaq and Upernavik municipalities is significant.
Tourism is a relatively new and growing industry in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> and this is also the case in the assessment area, where activities take place from early spring (April) and throughout the summer.
Knowledge on background levels of contaminants such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals is important in assessing environmental impacts from petroleum activities. The available knowledge on background levels of hydrocarbons in the assessment area is limited, but the general picture is that levels are low.
Assessment
Exploration
The environmental impacts of exploration activities will mainly be disturbance from activities creating noise such as seismic surveys and drilling. The impacts are expected to be relatively small, local and temporary, because of the intermittent nature of the exploration activities. Furthermore, the season for exploration activities is very short and limited to the few months with light ice conditions (June–October). No severe impacts are expected if adequate mitigative measures are applied, activities in sensitive areas are avoided in the most sensitive periods and no accidents such as oil spills occur.
Temporary impacts of intensive seismic activity could be displacement of <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut, which again could cause reduced catches in fisheries in affected areas.
Marine mammals, particularly whales, may also be displaced from critical areas such as feeding grounds. However, as seismic surveys are temporary such effects are expected to be of short duration (e.g. weeks or a maximum of a few months). In case of displacement, availability to hunters may also change.
Unless a zero-discharge policy is applied, drilling mud and cuttings will be released on the seabed, with local impacts on the benthos as a consequence. During exploration, when wells are few and dispersed, this impact can be minimal and local with proper mitigation, but impacts may be more severe if development and production is initiated (see below).
There is always a risk of oil spills from blowouts during exploration drilling (see below).
Development and production
The activities during development, production and transport are on the other hand long-lasting, and there are several activities which have the potential to cause severe environmental impacts. Careful Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) procedures, application of Best Available Technique (BAT) and Best Environmental Practice (BEP), zero-discharge policy and planning in combination with thorough background studies and application of the Precautionary Principle can mitigate most of these. Even though discharges and emissions can be limited, there will be a risk of cumulative and long-term impacts from many of the released substances, but knowledge is generally limited in this field.
The largest contribution to the pollution from an oil field is the discharge of produced water (if not re-injected). This contains, besides oil residues, small amounts of substances which are acutely toxic or radioactive, contain heavy metals, have hormone-disruptive effects or a nutrient effect. Some of the substances may bio-accumulate, although long-term effects of release of produced water are unknown. There is, however, an increasing concern about the environmental impacts of this activity. Particularly if producued water is released under ice, where there is reduced turbulence in the surface layer, increased impacts could occur. The most obvious way to mitigate effects of produced water is to re-inject it into the wells.
Discharge of ballast water is of concern, as there is a risk for introducing non-native and invasive species. This is currently not a severe problem in the <st1:place w:st="on">Arctic</st1:place> , but the risk will increase with climate change and the intensive tanker traffic related to a producing oil field.
Development and production are energy-consuming activities which will contribute significantly to the <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> emission of greenhouse gases. A single large Norwegian production field emits more than twice the total <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> emission of today.
Commercial fishery will be affected by development and production if installations are placed in the fishing grounds. A safety zone (of typically 500 m) will be applied around the offshore facilities. This will probably only be a problem in the offshore areas where a relatively limited fishery for <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut and northern shrimp takes place.
Placement of structures and the disturbance related to these have the potential to displace in particular marine mammals. Noise from drilling platforms has displaced migration routes of bowhead whales in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alaska</st1:place></st1:State> . Depending on the location of installations, displacement of migrating and staging whales (mainly narwhal, white whale and bowhead whale) and walrus must be expected. This can in certain areas limit their access to critical habitats which could be important for survival, and walrus is probably the most sensitive species in this respect, because the population is dependent on relatively few, localised and shallow benthic feeding areas. Furthermore, displacement can result in reduced availability of quarry species for local hunters.
Placement of offshore structures and infrastructure may locally impact seabed communities and there is, in some shallow areas, a risk of spoiling important feeding grounds particularly for walrus. If onshore structures are established there will be a risk of river obstruction impacting anadromous Arctic char and damage of unique coastal flora and fauna.
Intensive helicopter activity also has the potential to displace seabirds and marine mammals from critical habitats (e.g. feeding grounds important for winter survival) and reduce the importance of traditional hunting grounds used by local people.
Finally, placement of structures and installations onshore will also have an aesthetic impact on the landscapes, an issue especially important to consider when evaluating impacts on tourism.
Development and production activities are difficult to evaluate when their location and the level of activity are unknown. Overall, impacts will depend on the number of activities, how far they are scattered in the areas in question, and also on their durability. In this context cumulative impacts will be important to consider.
Careful planning in combination with thorough environmental background studies, BEP, BAT and application of the Precautionary Principle can do much to limit and mitigate impacts from development and production, e.g. by avoiding the most sensitive areas and avoiding activities in the most sensitve periods.
Oil spills
The environmentally most severe accident would be a large oil spill. This has the potential to impact the marine ecosystem on all levels from primary production to the top predators. The recent Oil and Gas Assessment by the Arctic Council working groups (Skjoldalet al. 2007) concluded that the main issue of environmental concern for the marine Arctic environment is a large oil spill, which particularly in ice-covered waters represents a threat at the population and even the species level. Furthermore, the lack of adequate response methods in ice-covered waters and the remoteness and lack of infrastructure in large parts of the assessment area will add to the severity of an oil spill.
Accidental oil spills may occur either during drilling (blowouts) or from accidents when storing or transporting oil. Large oil spills are rare events today due to ever-improving technical solutions and HSE policies. However, the risk cannot be eliminated and in a frontier area like KANUMAS West with the presence of sea ice and icebergs, the possibility of an accident will be elevated.
Oil spill trajectory modelling was carried out by DMI as a part of this SEIA. In most of the modelled oil spill drift scenarios oil does not reach the coasts, but stays offshore. However, three of the 24 scenarios indicate that under certain conditions, oil may reach shores up to several hundred kilometres from the spill site.
In general, oil spills occurring in the coastal zone are regarded as much more deleterious than oils spills in the open sea. This may, however, not apply in an area such as KANUMAS West, which is dominated by sea ice during the major part of the year. Ice may trap and transport oil over long distances, but may also limit the spread of oil slicks compared with the situation in ice-free waters and even protect shores from being polluted. Furthermore, the ice edges, leads and polynyas are very important in a biological sense and therefore potentially very sensitive to oil spills. Knowledge on the behaviour of oil spill in ice-covered waters is however limited.
The coastal zone is sensitive because of the high biodiversity present, including concentrations of breeding and moulting seabirds, spawning capelin and Arctic char. The high sensitivity is also related to the fact that oil may be trapped in bays and fjords where high and toxic concentrations can build up in the water. Furthermore, local fishermen and hunters use the coastal zone of the assessment area intensively.
Long-term impacts may occur if oil is buried in sediments, among boulders, in mussel beds or is imbedded in crevices in rocks. From such sites oil may seep and cause a chronic pollution which may persist for decades. In Prince William Sound in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alaska</st1:place></st1:State> such preserved oil has caused long-term effects on birds utilising the polluted coasts.
Effects of an oil spill in the open sea (without ice) are expected to be less severe than in coastal areas. Attention should be given to potential oil spills in areas with hydrodynamic discontinuities such as hydrographic fronts or upwelling zones, particularly during the spring bloom. However, knowledge on these events in the KANUMAS West assessment area is very limited.
Bird populations particularly at risk of being impacted by an oil spill in the KANUMAS West area include the large breeding colonies of little auk and the many thick-billed murre colonies. Many other seabird breeding colonies will also be exposed. Pre-breeding eiders and murres in polynyas and the shear zone will be very exposed. Moulting aggregations of king and common eiders are also very sensitive.
Several populations of red-listed seabird species (e.g. thick-billed murre, common eider, Atlantic puffin, Sabines gull and ivory gull) occur in the assessment area and the populations of these will be exposed to increased mortality in case of a large oil spill.
Marine mammals can also be impacted by oil spills, although individuals (except polar bears) are not dependent on an intact fur layer for insulation. Polar bears are an exception to this, because they are very sensitive to oiling of their fur. Walrus and bearded seal feeding on benthos may also be exposed to oil through their food if oil sinks and accumulates on the seafloor. Bowhead whales, which occur in low numbers (and are red-listed), belong to a stock which now is slowly recovering from heavy exploitation. This recovery may be halted by even a slight increase in mortality. The population of narwhal and white whale have both decreased in the assessment area, so they may also be sensitive to additional mortality from an oil spill.
There are special problems related to oil spills in ice. The spread of an oil spill will, at least in the beginning, tend to be contained and limited by the presence of sea ice, unlilke in the open sea. Oil will be contained between the ice floes and on the rough underside of the ice. However, oil caught in or under the ice may be transported in an almost un-weathered state over long ranges and may impact the environment, e.g. seabirds and marine mammals, far from the spill site when the ice melts. Oil may also be caught along ice edges, where primary production is high. Particular concerns have been expressed about polar cod stocks, because this fish spawns in late winter, and the eggs accumulate just below the ice where spilled oil will also accumulate. This could also be the case if produced water (with dispersed oil) is released from a platform in ice-covered waters.
In this context it is worth noticing that recent studies indicate that at least killer whales are very sensitive to inhaling oil vapours. This could apply to narwhals, white whales and bowhead whales, which often occur in densely ice-covered waters. In the case of a large oil spill in densely ice-covered waters the limited open waters will be covered by oil, and whales could surface here because they have no other option. Walruses and other seals living in the ice may also be vulnerable to this scenario.
Even though seals may tolerate some oil on their fur, such oiling may impact local hunters, as fouled skins are of no use and are impossible to sell.
Oil spill effects on commercial fisheries are mainly linked to the closure of fishing grounds (<st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut) for longer periods (weeks to months) due to the risks associated with marketing polluted or tainted fish. Effects on subsistence hunting and fishing will include closure of polluted coasts and probably also temporary changes in distribution and habits of quarry species.
This assessment is based on current conditions. However, climate change may alter these conditions considerably and the present assumptions may not apply to the future. Therefore reservations should be attached to some of the conclusions when looking a number of decades ahead.
Further studies
There is a general lack of knowledge on many of the ecological components and processes in the KANUMAS West area. To fill some of these data gaps, BMP, GINR and NERI have initiated a number of studies which will proceed in 2009 and 2010. The results from these studies will be incorporated in the revised and updated SEIA to be issued in 2010. See section 13 for a review of the projects.
However many more knowledge gaps remain to be filled and there will be a need for further regional strategic studies as well as project specific studies in order to have adequate data to perform site-specific EIAs. A full analysis of data gaps will be included in the 2010 SEIA. A preliminary list of the most important studies identified so far is given in section 14. Some of these knowledge gaps are generic to the Arctic and have also been identified in the Arctic Council Oil and Gas Assessment (AMAP 2007, Skjoldalet al. 2007), and relevant studies will hopefully be initiated by cooperative international research. On the other hand, a number of knowledge gaps are specific to the assessment area.
