Prior to the opening of the western Greenland Sea for an oil licensing round in December 2011 a Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) was made. This SEIA covered activities related to exploration, development and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the sea off Northeast Greenland between 68°and 82° N (the Greenland Sea assessment area). The SEIA was prepared by The Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE), Aarhus University, and The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) and a preliminary version was out in public hearing before the area was opened for licensing.
Based on the assessment in the SEIA, DCE and GINR has prepared this Strategic Environmental Study Plan for providing necessary environmental information for planning and regulating oil exploration activities and oil spill response, in the western Greenland Sea. In the study plan we describe the major information gaps at the overall strategic level in correspondence to those identified in the SEIA, and propose high priority-studies to fill in these information gaps.
The strategic environmental study plan includes projects on marine ecology, biodiversity as well as toxicology degradation of oil and contaminants, an oil spill sensitivity atlas and finally an updated SEIA. The proposed projects will be conducted in 2016-2018.