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U.S. gives Shell final nod to drill for oil in Arctic

Shell branding is seen at a petrol station in west London, January 29, 2015. The Obama administration on Monday granted Royal Dutch Shell the final permit to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic for the first time since 2012, a move environmentalists vowed to fight. The Interior Department gave Shell the final permit to drill into the oil zone in the Chukchi Sea off northern Alaska after the Fennica, an icebreaker the company leases that carries emergency well-plugging equipment, was repaired after suffering a gash in its hull. The permit was expected as the department had previously approved Shell’s exploration program before the Fennica hit uncharted shoals in southern Alaska. Shell obtained the leases in the Chukchi during the administration of former President George W. Bush. Shell has spent about $7 billion on exploration in the Arctic. It has not explored in the region since 2012, when […]

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Shell may get federal permits for Alaska

Arctic Challenger to be positioned near drilling sites for Shell, which should be getting necessary permits for exploration from the federal government soon. Photo courtesy of Shell Alaska. WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — Shell may soon get the permits necessary to start drilling into potential oil basins in an exploration well off the coast of Alaska, a federal regulator said. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement granted permission to Shell in July to drill two wells in the arctic waters off the Alaskan coast. BSEE said the permits excluded drilling into oil-bearing zones because Shell lacks a capping stack, a critical piece of safety equipment, positioned near drilling sites to continue beyond the exploratory phase. Shell’s early efforts off the coast of Alaska were plagued by equipment issues. Shell last month discovered a small breach in the hull of MV Fennica, chartered to carry the safety equipment to […]

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Yes, she confirms, that’s the same

Shell’s Polar Pioneer in Port Angeles, Wash., on May 12. Photographer: Jason Redmond/Reuters In a windowless conference room in Anchorage, a dozen Royal Dutch Shell employees report on the highest-profile oil project in the multinational’s vast global portfolio. Warmed by mid-July temperatures, Arctic ice in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of the Alaskan mainland, is receding. Storms are easing; helicopter flights will soon resume. Underwater volcanoes—yes, volcanoes—are dormant. “That’s good news for us,” Ann Pickard, Shell’s top executive for the Arctic, whispers to a visitor. Overhead, a bank of video monitors displays blinking green radar images of an armada of Shell vessels converging on a prospect called Burger J. Company geologists believe that beneath Burger J—70 miles offshore and 800 miles from the Anchorage command center—lie up to 15 billion barrels of oil. An additional 11 billion barrels are thought to be buried due east under the Beaufort Sea. All […]

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Russia Stakes New Claim to Expanse in the Arctic

MOSCOW — Russia formally staked a claim on Tuesday to a vast area of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole. If the United Nations committee that arbitrates sea boundaries accepts Russia’s claim, the waters will be subject to Moscow’s oversight on economic matters, including fishing and oil and gas drilling, though Russia will not have full sovereignty. Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea , a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. If the shelf extends far out to sea, so can the boundaries of the zone. The claim Russia lodged on Tuesday contends that the shelf extends far north of the Eurasian land mass, out under the planet’s northern ice cap. Russia submitted a similar claim in 2002, but the United Nations rejected it for lack of scientific support. So this time, the Kremlin has […]

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SEC asked to review arctic oil exploration transparency

House Democrats raise concerns about risk disclosures by companies like Shell targeting reserves locked in arctic waters off the coast of Alaska. Photo by ziggysofi/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) — U.S. congressional leaders said they had questions about the disclosure of risks facing companies like Royal Dutch Shell targeting arctic oil and gas reserves. Ranking members of the House of Representatives Committees on Natural Resources and Financial Services issued a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking a review of corporate financial disclosures by oil and gas companies with offshore operations, particular in arctic waters. When the federal government gave limited consent to Shell to start drilling operations off the coast of Alaska earlier this month, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., ranking member of the House natural resources committee, said Shell’s campaign was "fruitless." When issuing the letter to the SEC, Rep. Alan Lowethal, R-Calif., a member of the […]

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Shell still on arctic hot seat, advocacy group says

Greenpeace activists arrested by U.S. Coast Guard officials during protest against Shell drilling plans offshore Alaska. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace. JUNEAU, Alaska, July 23 (UPI) — Legal counsel for advocacy group Oceana said that, while pressure hasn’t stopped Shell’s slow march to arctic oil, feet can be still held to the fire. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement granted permission to Shell to drill two wells in the arctic waters off the Alaskan coast. BSEE said the permits excluded drilling into oil-bearing zones because Shell lacks a critical piece of safety equipment . Shell’s efforts to drill offshore Alaska have long been the target of advocacy groups, most recently from kayak-bound activists protesting against rig deployments from the Port of Seattle. Michael LeVine, Pacific senior counsel for Oceana, said that, given Shell’s track record in Alaskan waters, a return to the regulatory and procedural drawing board may be […]

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US Says Shell Is Not Yet Allowed To Drill In Arctic Oil Zone

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday granted Royal Dutch Shell two final permits to explore for crude in the Arctic this summer, but said the company cannot drill into the oil zone until required emergency equipment arrives in the region. The department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) conditionally granted Shell permits for exploration in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, in a season which sea ice limits from July until October. But Shell must have emergency equipment to contain a potential blown-out well deployable within 24 hours before drilling into the oil zone, the office said. Shell discovered weeks ago that the Fennica icebreaker that holds the required equipment, called a capping stack, had a three-foot (1-meter) gash in it. "Without the required well control system in place, Shell will not be allowed to drill into oil-bearing zones," BSEE Director Brian Salemo said. […]

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Shell suffers early arctic setback

Icebreaker contracted by Shell to carry a piece of safety equipment to Alaskan waters suffers minor hull breach. UPI/Kathryn Hansen/NASA JUNEAU, Alaska, July 8 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell confirmed an icebreaker carrying a piece of safety equipment to a drilling site in arctic Alaskan waters suffered a minor hull breach. A Shell spokesman confirmed in a statement emailed to Alaska Public Media a "small breach" was discovered in the hull of MV Fennica, chartered to carry a capping stack to drilling sites in the Chuckchi Sea. Shell is proposing as many as six wells in a region known as the Burger prospect, located in shallow waters off the coast of Alaska, using the Noble Discoverer and Polar Pioneer rigs. Shell would need the capping stack positioned near drilling sites under the terms of federal permits. Industry group American Petroleum Institute in July 2014 outlined recommended practices for the […]

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Shell Places Huge Bet on Arctic Oil Riches

Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.29 % PLC is days away from drilling in the Arctic Ocean—betting it can find enough oil to justify the huge risks that keep almost every other competitor out of those icy waters. The company is hauling two massive rigs—the Polar Pioneer and the Noble Discoverer—more than 2,000 miles up and around the Alaska coast to the Chukchi Sea, where it plans to begin work the third week of July. Accompanying the rigs are 30 support vessels and seven aircraft, a large entourage even by big oil-company standards. The voyage represents Shell’s effort to mount a comeback in the Arctic three years after a different rig ran aground following an unsuccessful drilling season. This time, Shell executives say they have both costs and safety under control, but the project has already hit a snag. A federal agency said last week that Shell can’t drill wells […]

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Shell’s Ice Management Vessel Damaged In Alaska

July 7 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s icebreaker vessel Fennica returned to the Dutch Harbor in Alaska with a small breech in the hull, raising concerns about the company’s plan to resume drilling in the Arctic later this month. Shell said in June it plans to restart drilling for oil in the Arctic off Alaska as early as the third week of July after a conditional approval by the United States. "Any impact to our season will ultimately depend on the extent of the repair," spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said in an e-mail to Reuters. Fennica, owned by Arctia Offshore, is one of the primary ice management vessels in the Port of Helsinki during European winter. Shell was given a conditional approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior in May to return to the Arctic for the first time since its mishap-plagued 2012 drilling season. (Reporting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple