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Oil spill fears put Shell’s Arctic drilling plans on hold

By Rob Davies

PUBLISHED: 22:30, 17 September 2012 | UPDATED: 22:30, 17 September 2012

A faulty piece of safety kit has forced Shell to postpone its controversial Arctic drilling programme just days before MPs were due to criticise its ability to respond to an oil spill in the region.

Shell said its ‘containment cap’ – a dome-shaped device that would collect oil and funnel it to a nearby ship in the event of a spill – had been damaged and will not be ready this year.

It comes at a bad time for Shell, as MPs prepare to release a report on whether British oil firms would be able to respond to a major spill in the Arctic. The first volume of the report, published on Thursday, is expected to conclude that companies such as Shell and fellow Arctic explorer Cairn Energy are not fully prepared for a disaster.

Environmental groups have lined up to criticise Shell’s plans, pointing out that if BP’s Macondo spill in the Gulf of Mexico were replicated in the Arctic the freezing conditions would hinder a clean-up.

Shell has also been criticised for rushing tests on its ‘capping stack’, which fits underneath the containment cap and would be used to plug the head of the well in the event of a spill.

The Anglo-Dutch giant will now have to settle for drilling ‘top holes’, the early stages of a well, which it can return to next summer when the sea ice disperses.

Resource-hungry nations and oil supermajors have been attracted to the Arctic due to the vast reserves it holds, which have been made easier to exploit by advances in technology.

A Shell spokesman said: ‘In order to lay a strong foundation for operations in 2013, we will forgo drilling into hydrocarbon zones this year.’

SOURCE

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