The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement,
the offshore regulator, on Monday 17th afternoon awarded Royal Dutch Shell a permit to drill into oil-bearing
rocks at the Burger J well in the Chukchi Sea off the north-west coast of
Alaska.
The Polar Pioneer rig, operated by Transocean under contract to Shell, began drilling at the site
on July 30, but until now has not been allowed to reach depths that could hold
oil.
The permit was granted after Shell moved to the region a
vessel called the Fennica, carrying a “capping stack” that could be used to
seal the well in the event of a blowout and leak.
Shell will be able to drill down to its target depth of
about 8,000ft below the seabed. It will be a significant step forward for Shell, which
has taken 10 years and spent $7bn on its plans to explore the Arctic, without
yet being able to complete a single well.
Shell says the time and expense are justified by the size
of the prize if its exploration is successful. The Burger prospect is in an
area that has been estimated by the US as potentially holding 4.3bn barrels of
recoverable oil.
The regulator’s decision was met with outrage from
environmental groups, which have opposed Shell’s drilling program both because
of the risk of a spill in the vulnerable waters of the Arctic, and because of
the potential implications for climate change of opening up new sources of oil
for long-term production.
If Shell makes a discovery in the Arctic, the field is
unlikely to come into production until the 2030s.
Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth said the award of
the permit “completely contradicts” President Barack Obama’s commitment to tackle the threat of climate change, made this
month when he set out plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Michael Brune of the Sierra Club, another environmental
group, said the permit award “goes against science, the will of the people, and
common sense”. He added: “This fight is far from over.”
The Arctic drilling season in the Chukchi Sea is usually
expected to run from July 15 to October 31, but Shell must stop work in late
September, to give about a month to sink a “relief well” to block a leak, if that
is needed.
Shell said on
Monday that the seas north of Alaska could become a “national energy resource
base” for the US. Offshore Alaska could in the long term produce 1m barrels of
oil per day putting the region on a par with the Gulf of Mexico.
