I wrote some articles about the trip to Alaska for Whiskey & Gunpowder and Outstanding Investments and there are more in progress. But even the first couple of articles prompted some reader mail. So this is a sampling of your letters, as well as some answers.

From John in New York:

“You did not discuss the wildlife of Alaska very much. What has been the impact of oil development on the wildlife of Alaska?”

Byron’s Reply:

I make no claim to be an expert on Alaska’s wildlife. There are many dedicated scientists and other professionals who have made great careers in evaluating and monitoring the wildlife of Alaska, and on all technical matters I properly defer to them.

However, I was up there, and I can tell you what I saw, and what I was told by knowledgeable people such as park rangers and others who have worked in the field.

Anecdotally, our group saw quite a bit of Alaskan wildlife. In the south, during a trip to observe the lava flows and pillow basalts of Resurrection Bay, we saw a variety of sea life, including otters, gray whales, killer whales, seals, and dolphins. The Sitka spruce covered the hillsides, growing in the soils right down to the waterline. The bird life was rich and varied, and in places I was reminded of scenes from the Discovery Channel.

Inland, we saw quite a bit of Alaskan wildlife, as well. This ranged from Dall Sheep and mountain goats to red and arctic foxes, gray wolves, moose, caribou, arctic hares, and many other smaller rodents. Again, bird life was rich (as were the bugs, in many places with calm winds). Of interest, we saw three arctic foxes, still in white coats, in and around the oil workings at Prudhoe Bay, and there were geese and ducks paddling and nesting literally right next to the gravel pads of the oil wells.

I mentioned in one article the Haul Road, which is a 20-foot-wide gravel road about 494 miles in length from Fairbanks to Deadhorse. It was upon this road that the equipment and materials were hauled in the 1970s to construct the Alaska Pipeline. Of interest, many forms of wildlife actually use the Alaska Pipeline and adjacent Haul Road as an assistance to living. Generally, the gravel beds under the Pipeline and Haul Road are built up to just a few feet above the nearby elevations. So moose and caribou walk on the elevated tracks to catch some breezes and keep the bugs away. Also, the open nature of the road, with almost no trees or ground cover, means that birds hunt for small game nearby. And dust from the Haul Road blows over nearby snow, which causes that snow to melt first in the spring. The availability of open water near the Haul Road tends to attract waterfowl, so the Haul Road has created something of a bird breeding corridor.

One interesting way of viewing the condition of wildlife in Alaska is to compare what is happening near the industrial development of the North Slope with an absolutely protected and essentially pristine area such as Denali National Park. Denali covers about 6.2 million acres, which makes the place larger than, for example, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Of those 6.2 million acres, about 1 million acres are covered with glaciers or permanent snow pack.) Yet Denali has all of 15 miles of paved road and about 40 miles of gravel road, of which half are off limits to all but official traffic. So imagine what it would be like to try to “see” Massachusetts if the place had only about 35 miles of paved and gravel roads for ingress.

Yet for all of its vastness and isolation, according to one park guide, Denali is home to fewer than 40 wolves. This is simply a function of the large territory that a wolf requires for its feeding and breeding ground, and the harsh climate for most of the year. There are far more wolves in the zoos of Massachusetts than there are in Denali, which is a larger and utterly undeveloped area. This says something about the general state of nature in Alaska, and the fragility of the Arctic environment, as well.

From Richard in Illinois:

“You seem to view the industrial development of Alaska as a good thing, and further development as a foregone conclusion. Do we have to develop everything? Can’t we just leave some places alone?”

Byron’s Reply:

Actually, Richard, I try to play these issues down the middle. ARCO and its geologists discovered the Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1967, when I was in middle school. The development consortium, acting under legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, built the Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s, when I was in college. I had nothing to do with it. And now, as the so-called “Peak Oil correspondent” for Agora Financial, I am merely describing where we are and forecasting where the ominous trends seem to be taking us. As Bill Bonner once mentioned to me, “I wouldn’t send somebody to cover a baseball game who does not understand the game of baseball.” And if during the past 30 years or so you have driven a car, or flown in an airplane, or heated your house, or eaten food grown on and transported from a farm, you have benefited directly or indirectly from the oil of Prudhoe Bay and the Pipeline. After 15 billion barrels of oil production, it’s a little late in the game to be complaining about industrial development in Alaska. So spare me the preaching and scolding, OK?

But you raise a good point, Richard. “Do we have to develop everything?” Yes, damn good question. Do we? That oil and gas of the North Slope has been there for millions of years of geologic time, and it will stay there for millions more years if it is left alone. (Now, if it were in China, I am inclined to think that the drilling rigs would be turning and burning. It’s a cultural thing.) What are you prepared to give up if, say, “we” decide not to build a Northern Pipeline to transport natural gas from the Arctic through Canada and to the Lower 48? You, for example, live in Illinois. And I read somewhere that it gets cold in Illinois in the winter. What’s your plan?

I mentioned in one article that the Alaska Pipeline and Haul Road are rather difficult to spot from the air. At the end of the trip to Prudhoe Bay, we flew down to Fairbanks in Caribou aircraft, and I was sitting in the co-pilot seat with a God’s-eye view of the Brooks Range. I knew what I was looking for, and I knew exactly where to look, and from 9,000 feet I could barely spot the Pipeline and Haul Road. So that aspect of development is visually insignificant in the grand scheme. As for the roads and drilling pads of Prudhoe Bay, they are all just a few feet of gravel. When the oil is pumped out, sometime in the far distant future, I suspect that people will just plug the wells and dig out the gravel and give the land back to Mother Nature and her permafrost. It is not as if anybody is building housing developments up on the North Slope. Really, do you want to live up there? It’s just plain cold and harsh, plus dark for months of the year.

I also mentioned in an article how clean the Haul Road was, and I am still astonished at that fact. It got to where we were all looking for litter, and just not finding it. OK, there might be a piece of plastic, or an aluminum can somewhere along the 420-mile stretch, but I sure did not see it. Today, the Haul Road is an industrial service road for access to the Pipeline, and for goods going to and from the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. But why is it so clean? And I mean country club clean, dear readers. Actually, there was more litter at Oakmont during the U.S. Open than there was on the Haul Road in Alaska.

On reflection, the Haul Road is used by just a few hundred truck drivers at most, and everybody seems to know everybody else. There is something of an honor code among the drivers to keep the stretch clean. The Haul Road is, to be specific, a public highway, but you really have to have a good reason to trek up north. It is just not a road for a Sunday drive, by any means. According to one knowledgeable individual, no more than 4,000 tourists per year visit Deadhorse, and about half of those are with one particular cruise-ship line that arranges overnight tours to the area. The other 2,000 or so tend to be scientific or “adventure” explorers, such as our group of 22 geologists.

Really, most people do not have the slightest clue about how far away, how vast, how isolated, how harsh, how just plain alone is the territory of the Brooks Range and North Slope. It is an area far larger than the size of California, with a total population less than that of a typical American shopping mall on a busy Saturday afternoon.

In terms of numbers, the North Slope of Alaska is home to about 10,000 or so industrial workers who commute up there for a few weeks at a time. They live in temporary housing constructed on gravel pads. The oil wells and pipelines all sit on gravel pads. And it is all connected to the south by a 20-foot-wide gravel Haul Road. The place appears to be very clean, and the end result is currently 775,000 barrels of oil per day to keep the U.S. economy running. Looked at in this light, I think that we have quite a remarkable trade-off going here. People are, of course, free to differ in that assessment.

Until we meet again…
Byron W. King

June 28. 2007

Letters to the Editor: Alaska was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

June 2-11, 2007

Would you like to go to Alaska? The only downside is that on this one you have to go with me. But still, this is a unique opportunity if you are free from June 2-11, 2007. Read on if you are interested.

So, You Are Interested?

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is sponsoring an event entitled “Geological Tour Through Alaska.” AAPG is not associated in any respect with Agora Financial, LLC. That is, Agora is not sponsoring the trip, and I want to make that clear. Sign-up details are at the end of the article, and you will pay your money to AAPG, not to Agora. But I am using this space to plug the trip for my own personal reasons that will become obvious. (Thanks to Whiskey publisher Greg Grillot and my colleagues at Agora for supporting AAPG’s worthy efforts.) So no, this is not one of those Agora trips to do something like learn how to tango in Argentina, fun and very nice as an Agora trip to tango in Argentina always is.

This trip in June is going to the interior of Alaska. You will not be staying at anything like the Las Vegas Bellagio, or at any Fairmont Hotels along the pipeline route. But if you have a sense of adventure, two weeks of available time in early June, and you want to get out, kick some rocks, and rough it with your boots on, this may be a trip of your lifetime. Do you want to know more?

Mark the dates, and allow time for travel there and back, because it’s halfway to China if you are coming from the East Coast. This AAPG trip begins in Anchorage on June 2, and ends in Fairbanks on June 11. I will give you the exact route and description in a few paragraphs. For now, the brief summary is that over those nine days (hard-moving days, you should understand), there is a journey south to the Seward Peninsula, then back up to Fairbanks, and a trek up the Arctic Highway along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) route to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Sea. The return to Fairbanks is via airplane, flying south over the mighty Brooks Range. Yes, that Brooks Range. And the airplanes carry rifles, so that if they have to make an emergency landing you can shoot the bears that want to eat you for dinner. (OK, they discourage shooting the bears. But then again, if the plane goes down, it is a long walk home. And trust me, you do not want to encounter angry or hungry bears if you can avoid it.)

What Else Do You Want to Know?

This is a geological field trip, but you do not have to know a kimberlite from a theodolite from a Bud Light to enjoy the vast and utterly spectacular beauty of Alaska. And you will be in the company of some serious geologists who can, and will, talk your ears off in explaining whatever you might want to know. I can say that because I will be among the traveling field trip members.

I can also say that you will not lack for explanation, because the field trip leader is Tom Plawman, a geophysicist who helps plan Prudhoe Bay development wells for BP in Anchorage. Tom first came to Alaska with Arco in 1984. Over the years, he has worked on a variety of Alaskan exploration projects, including the North Slope, the Chukchi Sea, Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, and various interior basins. Tom is the field trip coordinator for the Alaska Geological Society. So going on this trip with Tom is like having Babe Ruth as your batting coach.

The other field trip leader is David Hite, a consulting petroleum geologist in Anchorage. David recently co-authored reports on Cook Inlet natural gas supply and North Slope oil and gas reserve potential for the U.S. Department of Energy. He is currently consulting for two native corporations and several oil and gas companies. David worked for Arco for 24 years, with the bulk of that time in Alaska. He has geological experience in the Cook Inlet, the North Slope, the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and many of the interior basins, including participation in geological field programs in most of these areas. David has worked on projects in Alaska since 1967 and has lived in Anchorage since 1979.

So if you go on this AAPG field trip to Alaska, you could not ask for better-qualified people to guide you along the way and explain the rocks behind the beauty.

What Is Going On?

Here is what is going on. AAPG is an international organization that brings together geologists and other earth science professionals who work in the field of petroleum exploration and development. (I have been a member of AAPG for 30 years or so.) AAPG organized the Alaska trip, with a limit of 22 heads, due to space availability on the buses and aircraft. We are coming to the end of the sign-up period — in the first week of April, they tell me. By that time, AAPG has to make hard commitments for travel accommodations, berthing, and aircraft times. But there are only about 12 people on the sign-up list, including me, your Peak Oil correspondent at Whiskey & Gunpowder. So the folks at AAPG are thinking of just canceling the event.

I asked the AAPG trip coordinator, Karen Dotts, if she would mind if I promoted the journey to a few friends. She said, “Go ahead,” and that is why I am contacting you through the good offices of Whiskey & Gunpowder at Agora Financial.

More Details?

Here are more details. Beginning in Anchorage, we will view features related to the 1964 Alaska earthquake, one of the most significant and energetic seismic events of modern times. (The tidal wave generated in Alaska swamped parts of Hawaii.) Then we will drive south to Seward, crossing the Chugach Range, one of the largest examples in the world of what is called an “intact accretionary prism.” (Trust me, it’s totally cool if you are into earth sciences.) At Seward, we will travel on a large tour boat to see spectacular sea cliff outcrops of the Resurrection ophiolite (rocks from the mantle of the Earth), observe an actively calving tidewater glacier, and view an incredible variety of sea birds, marine mammals, and other coastal wildlife.

Heading back north, we will then see what are called “forearc basin” outcrops in the Matanuska Valley, and visit a historic gold mine at Hatcher Pass. Continuing northward, we will spend an entire day at Denali National Park, where we will have the opportunity to see its world-famous wildlife. Weather permitting, we will have spectacular views of Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. After visiting an active open-pit coal mine (not in the national park), we will proceed to Fairbanks in the interior of Alaska for an evening cruise on a paddlewheel riverboat on the Chena River.

On the following day, the northern part of the trip crosses part of the Yukon-Tanana upland to the beginning of the Dalton Highway, the only highway to the Arctic Ocean. The highway crosses the Yukon River and proceeds northward to cross the Arctic Circle and part of the Koyukuk basin where we will spend the night at the village of Coldfoot, on the southern flank of the Brooks Range. The following day, the tour crosses the spectacular Brooks Range orogenic belt (fancy name for folded rocks) onto the Arctic tundra of the North Slope, the proverbial land of the midnight sun. Then we cross the Colville basin to end at Deadhorse, the gateway to the Prudhoe Bay field. Lodging will be in one of the commercial camps in Deadhorse, with perhaps (weather permitting) a chance to view that very same midnight sun.

The final day is marked by a tour of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in the morning, and an opportunity to walk on the ice of the Arctic Ocean or perhaps dip your toes in the ocean if there is any open water. (Bring your fur-lined swimming trunks.) The field trip across Alaska ends in the afternoon with a scenic aerial flight back across the Brooks Range to Fairbanks in a light two-engine fixed-wing aircraft. If you want a better view of Alaska from the air, you have to be an astronaut.

More Details

Can you make it? There are about 10 spots left as of the time I am writing this article. So if you want to go on this field trip, please check your schedule and make your arrangements as soon as possible.

The cost for the field trip is $3,295, payable to and through AAPG at its sign-up link. When you think about what you are getting for your money, this is quite a trip and worth every dime. For further information you can contact AAPG and speak with Karen Dotts at (918) 560-2621, or e-mail kdotts@aapg.org.

Again, Agora is not sponsoring this trip. This is an AAPG gig, so act quickly to book a spot if you can make it. And you will have to make your own arrangements to get up to Anchorage, and back from Fairbanks, and for any accommodations outside of the dates of the trip. But on that issue, Agora Travel can help you.

Until we meet again…
Byron W. King

March 26, 2007

Do You Know the Way to Prudhoe Bay? was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.