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Page added on August 1, 2012
Shell Oil scales back Arctic drilling plan
Shell Oil Co. is downsizing its plan for off-shore drilling in the Arctic this year amid delays completing a spill containment barge required by the federal government, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Shell now hopes to complete two wells in 2012 instead of five. One would be in the Beaufort Sea off the northern Alaska coastline, and the other in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast between Alaska and Russia.
The company’s ambitious two-year goal of drilling 10 wells remains in place, company spokesman Curtis Smith said.
Valuable data derived from drilling the two wells still in the works will aid Shell with its drilling in 2013, he said.
Smith attributed the downscaling to delays in building and gaining certification of the containment barge in Bellingham, Wash.
Shell is working closely with the Coast Guard in what Smith said was a complicated, lengthy process. The barge will have to be in place in the Arctic before the company can begin drilling.
“We are not going to rush the barge,” Smith said.
The barge would carry a containment dome that could be lowered to a wellhead in the event of a spill. Oil would then travel from the dome through an attached hose back to the barge for processing aboard the vessel.
Shell, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has drilling rigs and support vessels in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands waiting to travel to the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The company is keeping watch on lingering sea ice in the Arctic — a threat that appears to be easing as the ice moves away, Smith said.
Shell also is working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency on an air permit also needed to drill this year. A problem arose when it was discovered that the generator engines on Shell’s drill ship tested slightly above allowable levels for ammonia and nitrous oxide.
Smith said the company was confident it could reach an agreement with the EPA.
Environmental and Alaska Native groups are challenging the permit, claiming the drill ship and support vessels will pollute the air and worsen Arctic warming.
Shell estimates it has spent more than $4 billion on Arctic offshore development to tap the estimated 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the region.
4 Comments on "Shell Oil scales back Arctic drilling plan"
BillT on Wed, 1st Aug 2012 2:42 am
Estimated….
And then there is the suddenly cold winter that locks up the Arctic like in the past when Polar Bears roamed the ice.
Suddenly, there is a break and a huge leak and the barge is 2,000 miles away…
oilforbreakfast on Wed, 1st Aug 2012 5:42 am
So due to arctic ice melting early due to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, the companies that profit from selling fossil fuels are now able to drill in the arctic to find more fossil fuels to burn to make climate change worse and further melt the arctic ice…ok. Good plan.
Norm on Wed, 1st Aug 2012 9:06 am
what will we call this giant corporate frozen oil slick, thats so obviously on the way… “Hot Fudge Sundae” ??
Will be like the BP slick, but no ships can get into there to drill any relief well. Just pour all over the place, and gets all over the ice, stays frozen, wont disperse.
Its gonna happen. Obvious. Like nuclear meltdowns, obvious before it happens. But the corporationz and their rich buddiez have to make lotza money, then sell the disaster site back to the taxpayerz … at a profit.
🙂
Kenz300 on Thu, 2nd Aug 2012 5:19 pm
Quote — “Shell Oil Co. is downsizing its plan for off-shore drilling in the Arctic this year amid delays completing a spill containment barge required by the federal government, a spokesman said Tuesday.”
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It is about time that safety and environmental concerns become more important to oil companies.
BP would have saved itself a lot of money if it had been a little more concerned with safety and the environment in the Gulf rather than pushing all out for profits over everything else.