Greenpeace International filed suit Dec. 19 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th District, San Francisco, to block Phillips Petroleum from proceeding with its planned exploration and development of the first oil field in the Beaufort Sea off the Alaskan North Slope.
The plaintiffs claim that the Minerals Management Service, the named defendant, should not have granted Phillips a permit to proceed with the McCovey oil prospect, which will be developed using an artificial ice island.
Produced crude would be moved to shore via pipeline. The environmentalists claim that Phillips does not have proper oil spill contingency plans.
Greenpeace also claims that if blowout occurred, wildlife, including bowhead whales, would be threatened. A group of Inupiat Eskimos also filed suit to block the McCovey project.
Phillips plans to build an ice road to the island this winter; one well is planned to be drilled before the end of the drilling season.
