Scientists from SINTEF, a nonprofit Norwegian research institute, ran experiments in the Barents Sea last May in regard to oils spills and cleaning them up. Anchorage Daily News is reporting that Shell Oil CO. has brought those scientists to Anchorage to share their findings.

The researchers said that while oil that is spilled in open water has a tendency to spread quickly, contaminating the shoreline, the tests that they ran in the Barents Sea helped them to discover that sea ice acts as a natural blockade, slowing down the spread and giving responders more time to clean up the oil.

But environmentalists don’t agree, citing the decade old clean up experiments that took place in the Beaufort Sea. Those experiments were botched and Alaska official came to the conclusion that Prudhoe Bay oil field operators wouldn’t be able to clean up oil spills that happened in slushy water.

For the presentation of these resent findings, Shell invited the Coast Guard, state regulators and Arctic village officials, among others. Shell is attempting to get support from the people of Alaska in order to pursue offshore exploration in federal waters. The company already spent over $2 billion last year to obtain leases. Shell is currently trying to get state and federal permits for oil exploration in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas for next summer.

But the oil company has already run into opposition. Several groups, including Pacific Environment, have sued to stop Shell from exploring in the Arctic.

When it comes to the research presented, Whit Sheard with Pacific Environment said,
“This does nothing to reduce the likelihood of a catastrophic oil spill.”

The research was funded by Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Norway’s Statoil Hydro, Total of France and Eni, located in Italy.