Investigators into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the US Gulf of Mexico often lament the failure of Congress to pass any meaningful safety-related measures informed by the lessons learned from the tragedy. But make no mistake — the ripples of Deepwater Horizon have been felt by the industry and can be clearly seen in the decision of Shell to abandon its offshore Alaska exploration as well as the canceling of Arctic lease sales for the remainder of the current US five-year leasing plan. The Macondo Effect, if you will, can also be seen in more subtle ways, as a close reading of the recent 300-plus page final consent decree between BP and federal and state governments reveals. Shell’s decision to indefinitely suspend exploration offshore Alaska may have been sparked mainly by the disappointing results from the one well spud in the Chukchi Sea. But the company made it […]