Dow Jones Newswires: Published July 25, 2012
Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSA.LN) is scrambling to take advantage of a shrinking opportunity to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean this summer, recently asking the Obama administration to allow it to get an early start on planned wells there, people familiar with the issue said.
With about three months left before winter ice is expected to move in, Shell is waiting for construction of an oil-spill containment vessel to be completed and for the ship to make its way north to the waters off Alaska’s coast. Shell can’t begin work on wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas until the vessel is in place.