Within a few years, America could be extracting oil from federal waters in the Arctic Ocean, but it won't be from a remote drilling platform. Hilcorp proposes to create the island about 24 kilometres east of Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest oil field. The surface would have room for 16 wells, including five to eightconventional production wells. Liberty would be the 19th artificial drilling island in Alaska, including four now pumping oil from state waters. Blake Upshaw of the Center for Biological Diversity said spills are inevitable and routine and cannot be cleaned up in Arctic waters.

Source: CBC News October 19, 2017 14:26 UTC