The village of Kaktovik, long a supporter of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is less enthused about exploration in the Beaufort Sea and now is feuding with a giant oil company, Shell, over its offshore oil-hunting plans.

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Kaktovik's City Council has passed a resolution calling Shell "a hostile and dangerous force" and authorizing the mayor to take legal or other actions necessary to "defend the community."

In a news release issued with the resolution, Mayor Lon Sonsalla said Shell had failed to address village concerns about how it would keep seismic testing scheduled for this summer from disturbing migratory bowhead whales and how the company would operate safely in unpredictable sea ice.

"We've been trying for a year to develop communication with Shell that would give us a measure of confidence about their intentions and their ability to function safely in our homeland waters. They just keep working against us at every turn," Sonsalla said. "Instead of technical staff or people with authority, they send public affairs. Instead of true consultation with community leaders on substantive issues, they try to schedule superficial social gatherings where they can talk at us."

Kaktovik is an Inupiat Eskimo village of nearly 300 people along the Beaufort Sea coast. ANWR cradles the village to the south.

Royal Dutch Shell, based in the Netherlands, is one of the world's largest oil companies with operations in more than 140 countries.

Shell once was a major oil explorer in Alaska, drilling in the forbidding waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The company left by the late 1990s without a major strike, but stormed back last spring as oil prices surged to record highs, spending $44 million to lease nearly half a million acres in the Beaufort, some near Kaktovik.

In July, a ship will arrive in Alaska to conduct seismic tests for Shell. The ship uses airguns to send down sound pulses that bounce back up to the ship for an image of rock formations potentially bearing oil and gas.

Shell's plans require permits from the U.S. Minerals Management Service, an Interior Department agency that regulates offshore oil and gas operations, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which manages sea mammals such as the bowhead.

Cam Toohey, a former Interior Department official who went to work for Shell early this year, said Tuesday that he'd rather not discuss the company's problems with Kaktovik in detail in the newspaper.

He said company officials are scheduled to meet with villagers June 9 in Kaktovik.

"We stand ready and willing to meet with any member of the communities on the North Slope, at any point," he said. "We're very concerned about the city of Kaktovik's resolution."

Toohey added that Shell already has signed a "conflict avoidance agreement" with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, an agency formed in 1977 to represent subsistence whaling villages before federal and international whaling managers.

"The hope is the seismic crew gets the information that they want and the whalers get the whales that they want," Toohey said.

The whaling commission's executive director is Maggie Ahmaogak, wife of former North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmaogak Sr., who also joined Shell this year as the company's Alaska community affairs manager. George Ahmaogak is himself a subsistence bowhead hunter.

Robin Cacy, Anchorage spokeswoman for the Minerals Management Service, said she was not aware of misconduct by Shell toward the villagers.

"As far as I know, Shell is trying to coordinate and work with the city of Kaktovik," she said.

Kaktovik's May 9 resolution said Shell "has ignored our advice" and calls on all North Slope communities to oppose Shell's work on its offshore leases until it establishes a respectful relationship with the indigenous people.

In the city's news release, Sonsalla said Kaktovik residents are comfortable with oil exploration on land, including inside ANWR.

"However, we simply do not have the same sense of security when it comes to offshore operation. No sense of security at all," he said.

The mayor, speaking by telephone Tuesday from Kaktovik, said Shell seemed reluctant to deal with the staff person he'd designated to work with the company.

As for what's next, Sonsalla said, "I'm optimistic, but we'll see what happens."

Daily News reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.