Oil company Shell plans to resume Arctic drilling off Alaska’s coast this year, the company’s leadership announced Thursday.CEO Ben van Beurden and CFO Simon Henry unveiled the move during an European conference call Thursday morning.
“If we drill, if we go ahead, it will be over a billion dollars,” Henry said. “Even if we don’t drill, it will be approaching a billion dollars, because of the commitment to keep the fleet of ships that we need.”
The announcement comes two years after the closing events of a tumultuous 2012 drilling season, in which the Coast Guard cited drillship Noble Discoverer for safety and environmental issues, and the drilling platform Kulluk ran aground near Kodiak on New Year’s Eve.A report last year on the Kulluk grounding ultimately found that poor planning and management were to blame for the Sitkalidak Island incident, while Noble Discoverer operator Noble Drilling pleaded guilty in December to eight felonies in connection with the drillship’s operation.Since 2012, however,
Shell Alaska spokeswoman Megan Baldino said Thursday that a return to the Chukchi this year is dependent on several factors.“We submitted our Exploration Plan in August and that lays out what we want to do in 2015 — and we’ve said all along that depends on clearing any legal obstacles, securing all the necessary permits and confidence that that we can execute a program safely and responsibly,” Baldino said.This is a developing story. Please check KTUU.com and the Channel 2 newscasts for updates.
See Full Story Here
