US oil firm's bid to drill for oil in Arctic hits snag: a lack of sea ice

Hilcorp's plan to extract 70,000 barrels a day follows Trump's reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the region

Plans to establish the first oil drilling operation in US Arctic waters have hit an ironic snag - a lack of sea ice caused by rapid warming in the region.

Last month, the Trump administration approved the go-ahead of the Liberty project to extract oil from beneath the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska's north coast. The drilling would be the first of its kind in federal waters in the Arctic and follows Trump's reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the polar region.