Obama Gives Shell The OK To Drill In The Arctic

One of the final hurdles to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has been cleared with approval of an idea for dealing with a environmental nightmare — an oil spill at the top of the world.

The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.’s policy for responding to a major accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The business hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June.

The matter of how to completely clean up a spill in the remote, icy waters, 1,000 miles from the closest U.S. Coast Guard base, has become the biggest impediment to opening the most crucial new frontier in U.S. energy development. But Interior Department officials said a robust plan has been made that could protect the fragile environment even yet in the event of a big blowout.

“After an extensive review, we have confidence that Shell’s plan includes the necessary equipment and personnel pre-staging, training, logistics and communications to respond quickly and mount a powerful clean up effort, should a spill occur, ” said James A. Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

The plan demands a fleet of oil-spill response vessels to be on hand constantly, along with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. In addition, it calls for a particularly designed capping and fence, still under construction and testing, that can contain and store an accidental release of around 80,000 barrels a day.

At most, the worst-case flow volume anticipated from any blowout is 25,000 barrels a day, Watson said to reporters.

He said experience with the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico prompted lots of changes to Shell’s oil spill response policy for the Arctic. One of them: beefed-up well-drilling standards; the permanent presence of a full-time federal inspector up to speed; standards and inspections on blowout preventers; and the existence of an additional drilling rig nearby to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout.

Shell, which is applying to drill exploratory wells nearer shore in the Beaufort Sea, plans to utilize its Beaufort drilling rig as a backup for drilling a relief well if needed in the Chukchi, and vice versa.

Conservationists say the plan, as approved, provides no real guarantee an oil spill wouldn’t normally devastate one of the world’s most fragile surroundings, home to polar bears, walruses, whales and thousands of migrating birds.

“This is just a premature decision, ” said Marilyn Heiman, director of the U.S. Arctic program for the Pew Environment Group.

She said the plan should, but doesn’t, include a satisfactory plan for protecting the shoreline and feeding areas for migrating bowhead whales as well as other species in the event of a spill.

“Really, they need 2-3 more years to essentially do this safely — to get the science right, to guard wildlife areas also to get equipment that has been designed for and tested in the Arctic, ” Heiman said.

Most of the nation’s biggest environmental companies have urged a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic, at the least until additional scientific tests and protections come in place.

More than ten conservation and native groups took out a full-page ad in the Seattle Times in preparation of President Obama’s stop in Seattle on Friday. It shows the drilling rig at the scene of the Deepwater Horizon spill in flames, and warns an Arctic spill could possibly be worse.

“Severely frigid winters, shifting sea ice, and months of darkness could turn a spill here in to a logistical nightmare — and an environmental disaster, ” the ad warns.

Officials in Alaska have long urged an expansion into one of Earth’s last great reserves of crude oil. They do say they’re convinced that offshore drilling is essential to reducing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, boosting jobs and keeping the trans-Alaska pipeline running.

“After 36 months of hard work with federal agencies, we have cleared still another hurdle toward gas & oil development in Alaska come early July, ” U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said in a statement.

Shell officials have previously begun submitting drill permit applications — and desire to win approval of their oil spill response plan in the Beaufort Sea, along with final air emissions permits from the Environmental Protection Agency — with time to begin a drilling operation that had been delayed several years.

“Approval of our Chukchi Sea oil spill response plan is still another major milestone on the way to drilling in Alaska offshore come early july and further validates the a large amount of time, technology and resources we’ve dedicated to assembling an Arctic oil spill response fleet, which is the best in the world, ” Pete Slaiby, Shell’s Alaska exploration manager, said in a statement.