Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Salazar: Shell’s troubles should inform others with Arctic plans

Screen Shot 2013-04-06 at 22.19.28

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Washington Bureau Published 7:29 pm, Friday, April 5, 2013

Lessons learned from Shell’s problem-plagued 2012 Arctic drilling operations will apply not just to that company’s future work in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, but to Houston-based ConocoPhillips and other firms with leases in those waters, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says.

That could include ensuring that the firms have access to specialized oil spill containment equipment or do a better job broadly assessing and managing risks in the remote region north of Alaska. A high-level Interior Department probe of Shell’s program last month concluded the company did not sufficiently oversee and manage an array of contractors and seemed to focus on complying with regulations rather than holistically managing risks.

“We will take those lessons and apply them across the board,” Salazar said in an interview.

Shell paused its hunt for oil after last year’s high-profile mishaps, including the Dec. 31 grounding of one of its rigs on an Alaskan island. But the company hopes to resume the work in 2014, using two floating drilling units.

ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, is working with regulators to finalize its plans to use a jack-up rig to drill up to two wells in 2014 at its Devil’s Paw prospect in the Chukchi Sea, about 80 miles off the coast of Alaska.

Spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said ConocoPhillips is reviewing the Interior’s probe of Shell’s 2012 Arctic drilling program and can’t say yet how it might affect ConocoPhillips’ plans.

The company is revising a drilling blueprint for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and an oil spill response plan for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

The company must secure the agencies’ approval of those plans before it can start any Arctic operations.

[email protected]

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.