Blunders during the 2012 drilling season, including permitting and technical issues with the Noble Discoverer drillship and the grounding of the Kulluk conical drilling unit, led Shell to halt its 2013 drilling season. Courtesy Shell Suzanna Caldwell:May 1, 2013 Four months after a Royal Dutch Shell drillship ran aground in Alaska, raising questions about the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Alaska Dispatch’
Moving on, Shell signs agreement with Russia to seek oil in Arctic
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team Eye on the Arctic: April 16, 2013 Although Royal Dutch Shell has announced a hiatus this summer for exploring the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean off of Alaska, the energy giant isn’t slowing down. Shell has signed an agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom, allowing it to explore and develop [...]
Shell Oil in Arctic: Learning to juggle, with chainsaws
Air permit emission limits were grossly violated yet drill operations continued.; Multiple critical engine failures also demonstrate their support vessels’ failed under stress. The eventual grounding of Shell’s giant mobile oil-drilling rig, the Kulluk, off Kodiak Island conveys a serious lack of planning to save a few dollars (before you go boating, check the weather).Could [...]
Evidence Shell Tax Dodging was Behind Kulluk debacle
By John Donovan The Alaska Dispatch has quoted from an email that Shell Alaska spokesperson Curtis Smith (right) sent on 27 December 2012. Curtis said in his email: “it’s fair to say the current tax structure related to vessels of this type influenced the timing of our departure.” He also said it could cost “multiple [...]
Safety, pollution issues hold up Shell drillship in Alaska
Ben Anderson | Dec 27, 2012 Royal Dutch Shell’s Noble Discoverer — a 571-foot vessel integral to the company’s Arctic oil drilling aspirations — has been held up in Seward for several weeks to address what the Coast Guard described as “pretty serious” issues with the ship’s safety and pollution- prevention systems. According to Petty [...]
Will Shell Oil’s Arctic ‘beer can’ hold up better in second-chance containment trial?
Alex DeMarban | Dec 13, 2012 The containment dome Royal Dutch Shell hopes never to use has been transformed, following an accident this September that left it “crushed like a beer can” — hampering the company’s groundbreaking effort to suck oil from the Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s North Slope. The failed Puget Sound sea trial [...]
Noble Discoverer stack fire contained by Shell Oil personnel
Eric Christopher Adams, Alex DeMarban | Nov 16, 2012 A drill rig involved in Shell Oil’s inaugural season of Arctic oil exploration briefly caught fire Friday morning in Dutch Harbor, an international port in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, according to the Unalaska Fire Department. Firefighters responded to calls of a fire at the U.S. Coast Guard [...]
Shell Oil’s next Arctic challenge?
Alex DeMarban | Oct 11, 2012 Believing the U.S. Arctic Ocean contains one of the world’s richest undiscovered oil and gas plays, Royal Dutch Shell is already considering what it will take to ship vast amounts of oil across Alaska. The oil giant might just find the bonanza next summer. In recent weeks, it’s punched [...]
Shell gains approval for early well work in Beaufort, seeks OK from whalers
Alex DeMarban | Sep 20, 2012 Kulluk shell offshore rig Shell Alaska photo Federal regulators on Thursday gave Royal Dutch Shell the green light to move forward with preliminary well work in the Beaufort Sea off northeast Alaska as soon as the subsistence whaling season ends. The company is also working to obtain support from [...]
Arctic rig departs, Shell meets with US regulators on change of plans
Alex DeMarban | Aug 21, 2012 Attempting to salvage a shortened drilling season in the Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell is working with federal regulators on a plan that might allow it to do some preparatory drilling soon, according to Financial Times. In anticipation, on Monday Shell’s drilling rig, the Kulluk, departed Dutch Harbor, in the [...]
Alaska election: Shell dives into state politics and ‘super PACs’ emerge
Amanda Coyne | Jul 31, 2012 As Royal Dutch Shell prepares to explore for offshore oil in Alaska’s Arctic, the company is also waging an effort against a ballot initiative that supporters say would restore the voice of Alaskans in federal coastal decisions. Shell has contributed $150,000 to the Vote No on 2 campaign, which [...]
Shell’s ship drifting incident should raise red flags for Alaskans
Carey Restino | The Arctic Sounder | Jul 21, 2012 I am not a boat captain, not of a skiff or even a dingy. I’ve never dropped an anchor and I have no idea what it’s like to be in charge of a vessel more than 500 feet long. So when my uneducated eyes saw [...]
How rapidly is Shell Oil’s window of opportunity in the Arctic shrinking?
Alex DeMarban | Jul 21, 2012 As predictable as bears roaming and salmon migrating comes the return of another seasonal fact of life in Alaska: Shell Oil waiting for the chance to drill exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean. The pioneering oil giant’s quest to open an industrial frontier in the waters off Alaska’s coast [...]
Shell offshore drilling vessel Noble Discoverer drifts near shore in Unalaska
Alaska Dispatch | Jul 14, 2012 Royal Dutch Shell’s hopes to drill in Alaska’s Arctic this summer have been hitting some hurdles lately, with potential problems arising with air permits, a hiccup over an oil-spill containment barge docked in Washington state and now, the drill ship Noble Discoverer came unexpectedly close to shore Saturday in [...]
Shell readies to roll dice on multibillion-dollar bet in Arctic Alaska
Alex DeMarban | Jun 30, 2012 Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series looking at Shell’s plans to drill for offshore oil in Alaska’s Arctic. Part 2 will look at the small revenue the state can expect from federal offshore development and congressional efforts to change that. Part 3 will focus on [...]
Shell Blog RSS Feed
