The isolated city Wainwright from above. Just next to the remote community Shell plan to bring a pipeline onshore that will feed into the existing industrial body of oil infrastructure that has pumped money into Alaska since the seventies.
Everyone has fallen asleep on the plane from Barrow to Wainwright except city Mayor Enoch Oktollik who reads the Anchorage Daily News. “I can not use the word happy, but the corporation will benefit. They will provide support services for Shell and hire spill response teams,” says Oktollik. His sentiment reflects how most of the electorate feel about the industrial plans, both eager for jobs and economic development but aware of the dangers involved.
A new airport and a man camp are among the things planned next to Wainwright's cold war relic, the Defence Early Warning site. Climate change is now opening up the Arctic for potential oil and gas exploration as the sea ice retreats. The question of who owns the North pole is still very much unclear with the five Arctic powers the US, Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway all jostling for pole position. Countries are once again stepping up their military presence in the far north.
The isolated city Wainwright from above. Just next to the remote community Shell plan to bring a pipeline onshore that will feed into the existing industrial body of oil infrastructure that has pumped money into Alaska since the seventies.
Wainwright
The native city Wainwright in the Alaskan Arctic sets to be transformed to an industrial site within a year. Despite a legal challenge to one of the necessary permits, Shell are expected to soon announce if they will continue to prepare to drill in 2012’s open water season. The oil giant plan to bring a pipeline onshore outside the remote coastal community that will feed into the existing industrial body of oil infrastructure which has pumped money into Alaska since the seventies. The Olgoonik corporation who own the lands around Wainwright are set to benefit from revenues by leasing land to Shell, but how the native community will benefit and be affected is still yet to be confirmed.
