Oil activity in the North

Petroleum exploration, extraction, transport, and processing in the Arctic affects polar bears and their habitat in many ways. There are already large installations and operations in the Arctic and the oil and gas business is set to expand in the years ahead.

There is one true offshore oil production installation in the Arctic, in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Exploratory activities have taken place in the Barents, Kara, and Pechora Seas, the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Davis Strait and the Canadian High Arctic Islands. Further offshore development is expected, particularly in the Russian Arctic and in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.

Onshore arctic oil installations are currently found in Russia, Canada, and Alaska.Oil and oil products pose serious health risks to polar bears. Contact with oil spills reduce the insulating effect of bears' fur.

The direct effect is that the bear must use more energy to keep warm, and must compensate for this energy loss by increasing its caloric intake, which may be difficult. Given that polar bears have very limited access to food for long periods of time, such an increased demand for food may result in starvation.

Polar bears can also ingest oil through grooming and through scavenging and preying on contaminated seals, seabirds, and other prey The ingested oil can, for example, cause liver and kidney damage, and has long-term toxicity. Even a limited amount of oil on the fur of a polar bear can kill it, primarily by poisoning through grooming.

In addition to the threat of oil itself, the extraction process can result in discharges of a number of toxic substances that may pose a threat to polar bears and their environment. These include both process chemicals, such as oil-based drilling muds which can contain both heavy metals and POPs, and also naturally occurring substances from the earth such as sulphur and alkyphenols.

Also, disturbances due to seismic blasting, construction, transportation and operation of facilities, as well as disturbances and contamination through oil spill clean-up operations, can negatively impact polar bears.

Offshore operations pose the greatest risk, since routine emissions, spills or leaks will be discharged directly into the sea or on the sea ice. A large-scale spill at or near the ice edge, either from a ship or installation, represents the most dangerous scenario for polar bears. If a major spill occurs at or near areas with high concentrations of polar bear denning sites, for example Hopen Island in the Barents Sea, it could have population-wide consequences.

There is currently no proven effective method for cleaning or controlling an oil spill in icy, arctic waters, where difficult weather conditions are common.

There is currently no evidence to date of population-level impacts on polar bears that can be attributed to oil development. This is likely because oil development so far has been relatively limited in key polar bear habitats, and that precautions have been taken where obvious conflicts were identified. However, polar bear populations are expected to come under increased pressure as oil developments in the Arctic go ahead according to industry plans.