Shell Oil is backing out of Arctic exploration
This is
welcome news for activists:
Shell will end exploration off Alaska "for the foreseeable future," the company said, because of the well results and because of the "challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.
The Burger J well drilled this summer will be plugged and abandoned, Shell spokeswoman Megan Baldino said. The two rigs mobilized by Shell for its Chukchi work, the Polar Pioneer and the Noble Discoverer, will be heading south, along with the support vessels, she said. "We'll begin demobilizing now," she said late Sunday. That process will take "as long as it takes to do it safely," she said.
Activists from the
World Wildlife Fund are shocked:
In response to Royal Dutch Shell's decision to abandon efforts to drill in America's Arctic Ocean, World Wildlife Fund issued the following statement from Brad Ack, senior vice president for oceans:
“Those working to protect the communities and wildlife throughout America's Arctic can rest a bit easier tonight knowing that the immediate threat of disastrous offshore oil spills has diminished. The Arctic Ocean once again proved to be the challenging and unpredictable environment we know it to be.
“We must stop expending resources and time seeking to exploit fossil fuels from the most hostile and remote places on the planet and risking irreversible environmental damage. We need to redirect that energy to accelerate our nation’s transition to a future powered by clean, renewable energy.”
Shell Oil spent years and billions of dollars
exploring the region:
Shell has spent upward of $7 billion on Arctic offshore exploration, including $2.1 billion in 2008 for leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast, where an exploratory well about 80 miles off shore drilled to 6,800 feet but yielded disappointing results. Backed by a 28-vessel flotilla, drillers found indications of oil and gas but not in sufficient quantities to warrant more exploration at the site.
"Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.," Marvin Odum, president of Shell USA, said in The Hague, Netherlands. "However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin."
Activists recently tried to prevent
key Shell Oil equipment from leaving Portland that was to be used in the Arctic.