WASHINGTON, Oct 21 — After years of controversy and delays, a federal agency has given the green light to Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean.
The decision on Monday by the Minerals Management Service clears one of the last big hurdles for the company to drill two exploration wells on two offshore lease areas in the Beaufort Sea. The company plans to do the drilling between July and October 2010 — the next open-water season when the sea-ice melts.
The plan has raised considerable opposition both from environmental groups, who point to the risks of pollution in one of the most remote regions of North America, and native villagers, who have sustained themselves for centuries on whaling.
The villagers fear that drilling operations will disrupt the seasonal migrations of bowhead whales during the summer.
To deal with these concerns, Shell agreed to interrupt its operations halfway through the drilling season to allow for the whaling activity by villagers from Kaktovik and Nuiqsut, according to the federal agency.
Shell’s activities will be completely suspended on Aug. 25, 2010, and the company will remove its vessels from the drilling site during the whale hunts. Once the whaling season is over, Shell will be allowed to return until October, if ice and weather conditions permit.
Shell has also scaled back the size of its drilling fleet, which its opponents have characterised as an “armada,” and now plans to use just one drill ship instead of two, and fewer support vessels.
“We sincerely believe this exploration plan addresses concerns we have heard in the North Slope Communities which have resulted in the programs being adjusted accordingly,” said Shell Alaska vice president Pete Slaiby, according to The Associated Press.
While the permit brings Shell one step closer to begin drilling, the company still needs an air permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The government’s leasing policy in Alaska has been mired in court battles for years. In May, a federal court asked the federal government to review its 2007-2012 leasing plan for Alaska. That decision does not affect drilling in Shell’s two Beaufort Sea leases, which it acquired in 2005 and 2007.
Shell, which does not produce on the North Slope, has bet heavily on Alaska’s offshore potential. In 2008, it paid US$2.1 billion (RM7.1 billion) for leases in both the Beaufort and the Chukchi Sea, and now has about 200 offshore leases.
Environmental groups said they were disappointed by the decision and criticised the government for endorsing a leasing rush that was sanctioned by the Bush administration. Several groups said that Shell’s drilling would emit tons of air pollutants and water waste, and that it risked damaging the environment.
“MMS is again trying to implement an overly aggressive Bush-era drilling plan in one of the riskiest areas on the planet to drill,” said Whit Sheard, the Alaska program director at Pacific Environment. “Although fishermen, traditional indigenous communities, the courts and the global scientific community have all condemned this plan, the Arctic continues to be treated like a sacrifice zone.”
Chuck Clusen, the director for the national parks and Alaska projects at the Natural Resources Defence Council, warned about the risks of an oil spill in Alaska.
“The reality of offshore oil drilling is that accidents will happen,” he said. “And when oil spills in Arctic ice, there is no cleaning it up. A blow-out like the one that recently despoiled waters off the coast of Australia would leave oil in the waters off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for decades, killing whales, seals, fish and birds and turning irreplaceable spawning and feeding grounds into an ecological wasteland.” — NYT
source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/40988-shell-wins-offshore-drilling-rights-in-alaska
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