The Arctic Is Hot Again
Why is Shell steaming toward risk with oil at $65 a barrel?
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In December 1979, in the wake of the Iranian revolution and the oil price shock, executives from the biggest energy companies converged on Fairbanks for an auction of leases to drill in Alaska's Beaufort Sea. Oil was nearing a then-record $29 a barrel. “This is the hottest area in North America,” one of the executives told the New York Times.
Oil companies would go on to produce more than 10 billion barrels of oil from the North American Arctic. And counting.