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By now it's common knowledge that Shell Oil has ambitious plans for offshore oil exploration. It's still unclear when, or if, the company will be able to proceed with the plans due to a court injunction.
In the meantime, Shell is trying to ease the fears of conservation and native groups who question the company's motives. CBS 11's Raegan Scott sat down with the president of Shell Oil, to get some answers.
Marvin Odum began with a brief recap of the company's history in Alaska, "We were in Alaska for a long time, mainly here in the Cook Inlet, and then as those fields started to deplete, we just had other parts of the world, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, in the U.S., where we focused our attention."
Fast forward. Shell Oil is once again paying a lot of attention to Alaska these days. President Odum has made multiple trips to the Last Frontier. He's trying to foster a stronger relationship with native communities that are struggling with Shell's drilling plans, while admitting there have been mistakes.
"I think we came to the offshore of the North Slope, with the confidence of what we know we can do, and didn't pay enough attention to the fact that other people don't have that same confidence and didn't really understand what we were proposing to do. So we could have gone in a more paced manner, and been much more open and had more communication about what we were doing and that would have helped ."
What they're doing ultimately begins in the Beaufort and Chuckchi seas, off the North Slope coast. Citing experience in Russia, Norway and the Canadian artic, Shell says they are prepared. From world class technological capability, to scientific research, Shell claims that drilling will not harm mammal
Of course when pressed, Odum gives a more direct respones, as Regan Scott found during a one-on-one sit-down with the company president:
Scott: "Why do you think these groups if we have that evidence and we know that according to your research .and it's not going to impact their habitat...why do you think their still so opposed to it?"
Odum: "The folks on North Slope are concerned about this new wave of activity. And I think over time that concern will lessen, it will lessen as we have more time to have people on the North Slope talking about what we're doing, sharing some of these facts. You picture the residents of the North Slope who have lived there for thousands of years, and they have thousands of years of knowledge particularly around marine mammals and that area, and how ice forms and moves. We combine those two, and I think the longer we work together the more that trust will build."
Scott: "Some people might say, that Shell has a history of corruption and corruption might be a strong word, or questionable business practices um with some projects you've undertaken in other parts of the world. Whether we're talking about the situation in Ethiopia with retirement, situations in Ireland with Shell being linked to espionage, sending in a spy to get information and report back their findings to oil companies, things like the situation in Nigeria. Given Alaska's problems with oil corruption, how can you promise to the Alaskan people that we're not going to see a pattern of some of these same things? How do we trust you?
Odum: "Ultimately it comes down to track record. I'm perfectly happy to stand behind Shell's track record in terms of how we work with communities and governments and other companies. I'm very satisfied with that track record and that will build over time here in Alaska as well. If you go out and gage our relationships with people , you'll get a response back in terms of how they feel so far. I try to do that as part of these trips here to Alaska. I get mixed feedback, but it's more positive all the time. I think we'll get there we'll get the trust level to where we want it to be.
Shell says they are ready to drill, except for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals injunction. They also say they can't estimate when the court will rule.
In the meantime, Shell is living up to their promise of social responsibility in the community. The company is already supporting educational resources on the North Slope, and they are also involved with a science and engineering program at the University of Alaska.
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