Environmentalists and Alaska Natives living along the Arctic Coast have bitterly opposed drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a prepared statement that the federal government was taking a cautious approach.
"In the Arctic frontier, cautious exploration — under the strongest oversight, safety requirements, and emergency response plans ever established — can help us expand our understanding of the area and its resources, and support our goal of continuing to increase safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production," Salazar said.
The federal government estimates there are 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Arctic Ocean's outer continental shelf reserves. The total includes both the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska's northwest coast, and the Beaufort Sea off the state's north coast.
Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, hopes to drill up to three wells in the Chukchi during the short open water season this summer and two wells in the Beaufort.
Salazar said Shell must still obtain approval from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which must inspect and approve equipment that has been designed for spill response. That equipment includes Shell's capping stack, a device that could be lowered onto a well after a blowout.
Rebecca Noblin, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in Anchorage, said Shell's cleanup plan relies on technology such as the capping stack that has not even been built, much less tested.
"The reality is, we don't know how to deal with an oil spill in the Arctic," she said.
Chris Krenz of Oceana, an environmental group that focuses on oceans, applauded the decision to test Shell's response equipment but questioned why officials would sign off on the spill prevention plan before the tests.
"It's really ludicrous to approve Shell's spill plan before those in-water tests are done," Krenz said.
The decision presumes the next test will succeed, but the last public test of cleaning a spill in ice-filled waters was in 2000 and was a failure, Krenz said. Shell's spill response plan claims it can clean up nearly all oil spilled, even though the recovery from BP PLC's Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, a location with far more infrastructure, was about 10 percent.
"It's crazy," Krenz said. "It's just not going to be possible. It seems like the Obama administration had joined Shell in oil response dreamland."
Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby said approval of the oil spill response plan is a major milestone. The decision, he said, validates the huge amount of time, technology and resources the company has dedicated to assembling an Arctic oil spill response fleet.
The company spent $2.1 billion on leases in the Chukchi Sea at a 2008 lease sale that was challenged by environmental groups, which claimed federal regulators did not follow environmental law before putting leases up for bid. The sale remains under court review.
Salazar said the approval of Shell's plan was guided by the latest science, new safety standards and lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon.
Besides the capping stack, Shell had to show the capability to capture and collect oil from the stack and to have a second drilling ship stationed nearby that was capable of drilling a relief well that could kill a well blowout.
Shell's Chukchi wells are proposed for the Burger Prospect, about 70 miles offshore in about 140 feet of water. Slaiby has said the site presents far fewer technical challenges and cannot be compared to the deep-water drilling and high pressures involved in the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
James A. Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said Shell's plan underwent an exhaustive review and his agency had confidence that the company can pre-stage equipment and personnel for effective spill response.
Alaska's elected officials praised the decision. Upward of 90 percent of state government revenue is tied to the oil industry, but the trans-Alaska pipeline has been running at less than one-third capacity as North Slope oil fields have matured and reserves have dwindled.
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said the announcement showed the federal government is preparing for short-term emergency response as well as long-term science for responsible development of Arctic resources.
"Alaskans should be assured the federal government is taking this seriously and has plans in place," he said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, congratulated the Interior Department.
"Today's decision confirms what we've known for some time — that Shell has put together a robust and comprehensive spill prevention and response plan that offers the highest level of environmental protection," she said.
Yet, Shell faces other hurdles.
The federal government approved Shell's Chukchi Sea exploration plan with the condition that the company stop drilling into hydrocarbon zones 38 days before sea ice forms around the lease area. The condition was put in place so Shell would have time to fix a wellhead blowout while operating in open water. However, the requirement cuts a 105-day open water drilling season down by 38 days. Shell is seeking to reverse the decision.
Shell plans to use the drill ship Noble Discoverer in the Chukchi. The vessel is drilling a well in New Zealand before a trip to the West Coast for modifications.
Shell is awaiting a decision on an appeal by environmental groups of EPA air permits for a second drill ship, the Kulluk, which Shell will use for Beaufort Sea drilling. The Kulluk also could drill a relief well in the Chukchi Sea if a blowout disabled the Noble Discoverer.
The Kulluk is undergoing upgrades in Seattle, including replacement of its engines to make them compliant with air standards.
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Oil drilling in Arctic nears reality: Shell emergency plan OKd
Shell hopes to begin drilling exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea with the Discoverer rig as early as this summer. (Royal Dutch Shell)
Reporting from Seattle— One of the last significant hurdles to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has been cleared with approval of a plan for dealing with a nightmare scenario — an oil spill at the top of the world.
The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.'s plan for responding to an accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The company hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June.
The issue of how to clean up a spill in the remote waters, 1,000 miles from the nearest U.S. Coast Guard base, has proved to be the biggest impediment to opening the most significant new frontier in U.S. energy development. But Interior Department officials said a robust plan is in place that could protect the fragile environment even in the event of a large blowout.
“After an exhaustive review, we have confidence that Shell’s plan includes the necessary equipment and personnel pre-staging, training, logistics and communications to act quickly and mount an effective response should a spill occur,” said James A. Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The plan calls for a fleet of oil-spill response vessels to be on hand at all times, along with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. It also calls for a specially designed capping and containment system, still under construction and testing, that would be able to contain and store an accidental release of up to 80,000 barrels a day.
The worst-case flow volume anticipated from any blowout is 25,000 barrels a day, Watson said in a conference call with reporters.
He said experience with the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a number of changes to Shell’s oil spill response plan for the Arctic. Among them: beefed-up well-drilling standards; the permanent presence of a full-time federal inspector on board; standards and inspections on blowout preventers; and the existence of a second drilling rig nearby to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout. (REMEMBER THE GULF OF MEXICO)
Shell, which also is applying to drill exploratory wells nearer shore in the Beaufort Sea, plans to use 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 that an oil spill would not devastate one of the world’s most fragile environments, home to polar bears, walruses, whales and thousands of migrating birds.
“This is a premature decision,” Marilyn Heiman, director of the U.S. Arctic program for the Pew Environment Group, said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
She said the plan should, but doesn’t, include an adequate plan for protecting the shoreline and feeding areas for migrating bowhead whales and other species in the event of a spill.
“Ideally, they need two to three more years to really do this safely -- to get the science right, to protect wildlife areas and to get equipment that's been designed for and tested in the Arctic,” Heiman said.
Most of the nation’s biggest environmental organizations have urged a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic, at least until additional scientific studies and protections are in place.
More than a dozen conservation and indigenous groups took out a full-page ad in the Seattle Times in advance of President Obama’s visit to Seattle on Friday. It shows the drilling rig at the scene of the Deepwater Horizon spill in flames, and warns that an Arctic spill could be worse.
“Severely cold weather, shifting sea ice, and months of winter darkness could turn a spill here into a logistical nightmare — and an environmental disaster,” the ad warns.
But officials in Alaska have long urged an expansion into one of the world’s last great reserves of crude oil. They say they're convinced that offshore drilling is crucial to reducing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, boosting jobs and keeping the trans-Alaska pipeline running.
“After three years of hard work with federal agencies, we have cleared another hurdle toward oil and gas development in Alaska this summer,” U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said in a statement.
Shell officials have already begun submitting drill permit applications -- and hope to win approval of their oil spill response plan in the Beaufort Sea, along with final air emissions permits from the Environmental Protection Agency -- in time to begin a drilling operation that has already been delayed several years.
“Approval of our Chukchi Sea oil spill response plan is another major milestone on the path to drilling in Alaska offshore this summer and further validates the huge amount of time, technology and resources we have dedicated to assembling an Arctic oil spill response fleet, which is second to none in the world," Pete Slaiby, Shell’s Alaska exploration manager, said in a statement.
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Mission Impossible: Oil Spill Clean-up in Arctic Waters
Drilling Plans do Not Address Barriers to Spill Response Says WWF
The oil spill response plan approved by the Obama administration today fails to address barriers to cleaning up an oil spill in the icy, unpredictable and inhospitable Arctic waters and poses unacceptably high risks to marine life, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says.
The approval by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement of Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc.’s Oil Spill Response Plan for the Chukchi Sea paves the way towards offshore oil exploration off of Alaska’s North Slope this summer.
“The risks and potential impacts associated with this Arctic offshore oil development plan are currently unacceptably high and unmanageable” said WWF’s Arctic Program’s Layla Hughes, Senior Program Officer for Oil, Gas and Marine Shipping. “There is no evidence that oil companies and regulators have fully addressed the obvious lessons from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Given the difficult working conditions and lack of infrastructure found in the Arctic, it would be irresponsible to begin drilling.”
The Deepwater Horizon blowout, which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, took nearly three months to stop and gushed an estimated 205,800,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean.
A recent study on the oil spill response gap in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea, adjacent to the Chukchi Sea, shows that no oil spill response would be possible for the seven to eight months of winter. The study’s conclusions are based on primary data on wind, visibility and other climate parameters.
During the remaining four to five months of the year when a response to an oil spill is plausible, high winds, waves, unstable ice and poor visibility would limit the ability to identify, approach, contain and clean-up any spills.
WWF analysis shows that even during the most favorable weather conditions of July and August, a response to an oil spill would only be possible in the Beaufort Sea between 44 and 46 percent of the time.
Limited infrastructure and workforce mean that even in optimal Arctic conditions, mobilizing a sufficient spill response in a timely fashion will be difficult, if not impossible.
Additionally, technical shortcomings and mechanical failures in the harsh weather conditions could cripple any spill response. An analysis of reports from the Joint Industry Program (JIP), requested by WWF, reviewed the latest clean-up devices, confirming that in Arctic conditions existing technologies are ineffective. For example, containment boom systems failed when towed at very slow speeds hauling modest amounts of ice.
America’s Arctic ecosystem is home to unique species such as the polar bear, walrus, narwhal and a variety of seals, whales, birds and fish, as well as indigenous people who have adapted to the region’s extreme conditions over millennia.
The environmental damage caused by an offshore oil spill in the Arctic could be lasting and irreversible. More than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, ecological effects are still being felt, and oil is still found on local beaches.
ABOUT WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, working in 100 countries for nearly half a century. With the support of almost 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat climate change. Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org to learn more.
Matt Farrauto
(202) 495-4593 – office
(202) 660-3136 – mobile
Matt(dot)Farrauto(at)wwfus(dot)org
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Dept. of Interior approves Shell Chukchi Sea oil spill response plan; next steps to shallow-water Arctic exploration
17 February 2012
The US Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has approved Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc.’s (Shell) Oil Spill Response Plan (OSRP) for the Chukchi Sea. In addition, BSEE announced coordinated exercises and emergency response planning by US agencies in the Arctic; expanded scientific work, information collection and data sharing among agencies, industry, and research institutions to inform Arctic planning; and undertaking long-term, landscape-scale planning for the Arctic.
The approval does not authorize Shell to begin drilling; Shell must still seek and obtain approval from BSEE for well-specific drilling permits prior to commencing operations, and BSEE would inspect and approve equipment that has been designed and deployed for the effort, including Shell’s capping stack, before activities could go forward.
In the Arctic frontier, cautious exploration—under the strongest oversight, safety requirements, and emergency response plans ever established—can help us expand our understanding of the area and its resources, and support our goal of continuing to increase safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production. We are taking a cautious approach, one that will help inform the wise decisions of tomorrow.
—Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
BSEE’s approval of Shell’s OSRP for the Chukchi Sea follows the bureau’s review of the plan and consultations with federal and state partner agencies involved in Arctic preparedness. Consistent with new regulatory requirements implemented in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Shell was required to prepare for a worst case discharge nearly five times that of their previous plan, to include planning for adverse weather conditions, and to develop special equipment and strategies that could respond to a loss of well control and a spill.
Shell has committed to provide for the following emergency contingencies:
the availability of a capping stack to shut off any flow of oil if other shut-off systems fail;
the capability to capture and collect oil from that stack; and
access to a rig capable of drilling a relief well that could kill the well, if necessary.
The ready availability of a capping stack and an oil collection system are new commitments that apply lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon tragedy to offshore oil and gas production activities.
Shell has proposed drilling up to six wells in the Chukchi Sea during the next two summer open water seasons within the Burger Prospect, located about 70 miles off the coast in approximately 140 feet of water.
Additional steps have been taken in conjunction with the review and approval of Shell’s exploration and response plans, including:
an analysis of the relevant reservoir pressures that are likely to be encountered during any exploratory drilling; these pressures are known based on information collected during exploratory drilling activity that has occurred in previous years in similar reservoirs in the Chukchi Sea; and
a requirement that Shell terminate drilling into any hydrocarbon-bearing zones 38 days prior to November 1 so that if an accident were to occur, all capping, response and well killing operations could be conducted in open water before ice forms in Chukchi waters.
Secretary Salazar highlighted the work of US agencies to ensure that the full scope of federal command and control capabilities are in place in the event that an accident occurred during the limited period allowed for potential exploratory drilling. If drilling is allowed to go forward, the Coast Guard would be in charge of overall command and control activities. The Coast Guard has committed to an on-scene, at-sea presence, with land-based support, in the event that exploratory drilling goes forward this summer. The Coast Guard’s command and control activities, supported by BSEE, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other federal agencies, would proceed in conformance with federally-mandated contingency plans for the North Slope area that have recently been revised and updated, and which are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. Those plans include the identification of sensitive ecological resources in the region and outline protection strategies.
Several exercises have also taken place and more are planned. For the last several summers, the Coast Guard has deployed vessels, aircraft and personnel to North Slope areas to practice operations in the area and work with local officials and citizens. On 8 Dec. 2011, members of the Coast Guard and the State of Alaska conducted an Incident Command Post workshop with Shell personnel to improve oil spill preparedness. BSEE is planning an additional exercise with Shell and federal, state and local representatives in spring 2012.
In addition, the Alaska Regional Response Team (ARRT), which is made up of 12 federal agencies and the State of Alaska, is planning an exercise that will test ARRT processes for responding to an incident. Finally, BSEE will conduct a deployment test of Shell’s capping stack prior to the approval of Shell’s drilling permit application, as well as on-site unannounced inspections of deployed spill response equipment.
Secretary Salazar also underscored several initiatives aimed at bringing the best available science to energy-related decisions in the Arctic. They focus on the importance of continuing to gather new data, building on the extensive information that already exists on the Arctic, and making it available for decision-makers, state, tribal and local officials, nongovernmental organizations, and the general public. Among other things, companies engaging in activity in the Arctic will be called upon gather and make publicly available Arctic-related data that will increase the information base available for future Arctic decision-making.
The Department of the Interior, NOAA and Shell have identified a large body of data that the company will be expected to develop and make available if it moves ahead with exploratory drilling next summer, including information relating to marine mammal routes, sea currents, ice and weather forecasting, and data about the offshore and onshore ecosystem and cultural resources.
A fourth component relates to long-term, landscape-scale planning for the Arctic. In particular, Salazar emphasized the need to jump-start the US commitment to developing an ecosystem-based management framework for the Arctic region, as recently agreed to by the eight-nation Arctic Council.
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