By Katarzyna Klimasinska – Jun 2, 2011 3:53 PM GMT+0100
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), blocked for about four years from developing 10-year Arctic leases purchased from the U.S., said the delays are highly unusual and undermine confidence in the federal offshore program.
The Hague-based company acquired oil leases in the Beaufort Sea in 2005, and added Chukchi Sea leases in 2008. Since then, Shell has been pursuing permits from drilling regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Although the leases were issued to Shell, the governments permitting and regulatory process has not been equipped to deliver, David Lawrence, Shells executive vice president of exploration and commercial, said in remarks prepared today for a House Natural Resources Committee hearing in Washington. This is highly unusual. The federal governments decision to hold a sale is, in effect, a decision that outer continental shelf exploration and development is desired.
The company has said it needed two years to prepare for drilling in the Beaufort Sea and was ready in 2007.
Shell filed two exploration plans last month to drill as many as two wells a year in the Beaufort Sea, where the leases expire in 2015, and as many as three a year in the Chukchi Sea from 2012 through 2013. A delay in issuing an air permit last year forced the company to postpone exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea that was planned for this year.
The Beaufort and Chukchi seas are among the most unique places of the planet and oil exploration might pose a threat to polar bears and walruses, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at [email protected];
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at [email protected]
*This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, the Independent Shell Archive, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years. *All conjured up by internet wizz, Nick Gill.
