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ExxonMobil told investors last week that it is no longer interested in drilling new wells in the Arctic. A statement sent to shareholders says ExxonMobil does not hold any active leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge nor is it pursuing any development there. It also says that ExxonMobil is not planning any future exploration activity in the Arctic.
"ExxonMobil is recognizing what others have been saying for years: High-risk drilling for Arctic oil on land that is sacred to Indigenous people is bad business," Karlin Itchoak, Alaska regional director for The Wilderness Society, said in a statement following the announcement.
The ExxonMobil announcement follows a trend of oil companies pulling out of Alaska for financial reasons. Three major oil companies relinquished drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year. Five major U.S. banks and many insurance companies have also stepped away from Arctic oil financing.
Given the waning interest in Arctic drilling, the Sierra Club points out that a 2024 Arctic Refuge lease sale, which is mandated by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, is likely to fail—just as the last Arctic Refuge lease sale failed under President Donald Trump.
The Sierra Club is also using the news to call on President Joe Biden to permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The federal government is already working on a rulemaking to protect up to 13 million acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the largest contiguous area of public lands in the U.S.
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It is indestructible. Water is alive, it is life... Mankind needs to embrace a new paradigm about the nature of water. A paradigm that mankind is not Master of Water, water is the master, so we must learn to work with and respect water.”
