Photos of the 1,000-ton drilling rig being placed in its spot atop the Mars oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling rig was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. The photos are from Shell. (Shell)
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Shell's Mars platform, right, is being repaired by a crew on The Hermod, a Heermena crane vessel, left, Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico. Early next week, crews will use cranes to lift the toppled drilling rig in two parts. Sharon Steinmann / Houston Chronicle HOUCHRON CAPTION (11/20/2005) SECBIZ COLORFRONT: CLEANUP JOB: The heavy-lift vessel Hermod, left, prepares to remove the 1,000-ton drilling rig that collapsed atop Shell's Mars platform in the Gulf of Mexico. For hours the platform was lashed by 175-mph winds generated by Hurricane Katrina (HOUSTON CHRONICLE)
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A Shell worker builds a welding shed Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007, aboard the Shell Mars Platform about 130 miles south of New Orleans, La., in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo by Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle) (HOUSTON CHRONICLE)
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According to Shell USA, this floating platform currently under construction in this Wednesday, Aug. 5, 1998 photo off the Caribbean coast of Curacao will be the world's deepest ocean oil rig. Once completed, it will be towed to a 4,000 foot deep submarine off the coast of New Orleans, USA. Shell has a 45 percent stake in the dlrs 1.45 billion project, while British Petroleum owns 23 percent, and Conoco and Exxon each own 16 percent. (AP Photo/Henky Looman) HOUCHRON CAPTION (09/13/1998): Shell USA's Ursa offshore platform, shown in August under construction off the coast of Curacao in the Caribbean Sea, will be the world's deepest ocean oil rig. British Petroleum, Conoco and Exxon are partners in the $1.45 billion project, which will be deployed in the Gulf of Mexic 4,000 feet above the sea floor. HOUSTON CHRONICLE SPECIAL SECTION: ENERGY. (AP)
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Timewise employees hold cars in line at Timewise Shell station at 511 Lockwood, where Shell was giving away 15 gallons of free gas to customers, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, in Houston. The event lasted from 7a.m. until 8:30a.m. in Houston, and was repeated in four cities nationwide. The event was designed to showcase the benefits of high quality gas, according to Shell spokesman Sergio Roldan. "This event was to showcase the benefits of high quality gas to help customers protect their vehicles and same money on gasoline." ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)
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Jose Veloz gives the "thumbs up" from the drivers side of his Suburban as Timewise employee Sunny Ajose finishes pumping free gas for him at a Timewise Shell station at 511 Lockwood, where Shell was giving away 15 gallons of free gas to customers, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, in Houston. The event lasted from 7a.m. until 8:30a.m. in Houston, and was repeated in four cities nationwide. The event was designed to showcase the benefits of high quality gas, according to Shell spokesman Sergio Roldan. "This event was to showcase the benefits of high quality gas to help customers protect their vehicles and same money on gasoline." ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)
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Timewise employee Becky Hunter celebrates after giving away free gas at a Timewise Shell station at 511 Lockwood, where Shell was giving away 15 gallons of free gas to customers, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, in Houston. The event lasted from 7a.m. until 8:30a.m. in Houston, and was repeated in four cities nationwide. The event was designed to showcase the benefits of high quality gas, according to Shell spokesman Sergio Roldan. "This event was to showcase the benefits of high quality gas to help customers protect their vehicles and same money on gasoline." ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)
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Timewise employee Becky Hunter celebrates after giving away free gas at a Timewise Shell station at 511 Lockwood, where Shell was giving away 15 gallons of free gas to customers, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, in Houston. The event lasted from 7a.m. until 8:30a.m. in Houston, and was repeated in four cities nationwide. The event was designed to showcase the benefits of high quality gas, according to Shell spokesman Sergio Roldan. "This event was to showcase the benefits of high quality gas to help customers protect their vehicles and same money on gasoline." ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)
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President and CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore, Gary Chouest (R-L) gives Shell Alaska Vice President, Pete Slaiby a tour of Shell Hull 247 at the Edison Chouest Offshore's North American Shipbuilding facility in Larose, La. (Chronicle)
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Shell Hull 247 pictured at the Edison Chouest Offshore's North American Shipbuilding facility in Larose, La. (Chronicle)
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Shell Alaska Vice President, Pete Slaiby (L-R) talks with President and CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore, Gary Chouest just after taking a tour of Shell Hull 247 at the Edison Chouest Offshore's North American Shipbuilding facility in Larose, La. Slaiby and Chouest are pictured in front of an unnamed vessel under construction at the facility. (Chronicle)
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Shell Alaska Vice President, Pete Slaiby (L-R) talks with President and CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore, Gary Chouest just after taking a tour of Shell Hull 247 at the Edison Chouest Offshore's North American Shipbuilding facility in Larose, La. Slaiby and Chouest are pictured in front of an unnamed vessel under construction at the facility. (Chronicle)
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Bill Soplu of Kaktovik, Alaska, demonstrates the use of one of several DP (dynamic positioning) simulators used to help train employees for work on large vessels at the Edison Chouest Offshore ship builing facility in Larose, La. Soplu, a deckhand for Edison Chouest Offshore, is in training to become an OSV (offshore service vessel) mate on Shell Hull 247. (Chronicle)
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Billy Pellegrin, QHSE Manager for Edison Chouest Offshore in Galliano, explains how the DP (dynamic positioning) simulator works to help train employees for work on large vessels. The simulator is one of several located at the Edison Chouest Offshore ship building facility in Larose, La. (Chronicle)
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Mary Dokianos of Shell Oil Co. photographs Brutus, a tension leg platform used for oil and gas drilling and production, at a construction facility in Ingleside, Texas, Tuesday, April 24, 2001. The total cost for the platform is expected to be about $760 million. The huge platform, with a 245-foot-by-245-foot deck nearly the size of two football fields side by side and about 40 feet above the water, will be working in 2,985 feet of the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (AP)
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An undated file photograph shows a Shell oil company worker on an offshore oil platform in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Leading non-Saudi oil exporters Russia, Nigeria and Mexico have pledged to boost production to offset rising oil prices and Nigeria's Presidential Advisor on Petroleum and Energy, Edmund Dakouro, has said his country could pump an additional 300,000 barrels a day of crude oil within 40 days, if the market needs it. (AP Photo/ Shell). HOUCHRON CAPTION (06/01/2004): A Shell employee works on an offshore oil platform in the resource-wealthy Niger Delta, which is plagued with violence. (AP)
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FILE--This undated file photo shows the Trident 8 oil rig in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Militant youths took hostage dozens of oil workers, including at least eight foreigners, at a drilling rig off the coast of West Africa, but released them all Monday Aug. 27, 2001, Shell Oil said. (AP Photo/HO, Shell) (AP)
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CONTACT FILED: OIL RIGS-TEXAS. 04/17/2000 - The Deepwater Nautilus, billed as one the world's largest and most sophisticted semisubmersible oil rigs , dwarfs the pier in the Port of Galveston. The rig stands at about 35 stories tall and its crew quarters accommmodate 130 people. It is shown from Pelican Island across from its berth at Pier 39 &40 . The Deepwater Nautilus is in Galveston for final commissioning and loadout before commencing its five year contract with Shell Deepwater Development, Inc. in the Gulf of Mexico. (Melissa Phillip/Chronicle) HOUCHRON CAPTION (04/18/2000): The Deepwater Nautilus, a semisubmersible oil rig, arrives Monday in Galveston Bay. The rig, which stands 35 stories tall and houses 130 people, will undergo final commissioning at Pier 39/40 before beginning a five-year contract with Shell Deepwater Development Inc. in the Gulf of Mexico. (Houston Chronicle)
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The view from the Shell offshore drilling platform Brutus, off the south Louisana coast, looking out towards another large platform. 12/12/03 (Karl Stolleis/Houston Chronicle) (Houston Chronicle)
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Shell Oil's Mars platform is being repaired by a crew on The Hermod, a Heermena crane vessel. Workers are preparing the toppled drilling rig on Shell's Mars platform in the Gulf of Mexico for removal with cranes early next week. Sharon Steinmann / Houston Chronicle (HOUSTON CHRONICLE)
The Interior Department said Friday it had approved Shell Oil Co.’s plan to respond to potential oil spills in the Chukchi Sea, bringing the company closer to drilling off the northern coast of Alaska.
Shell hasn’t yet received approval of its Beaufort Sea oil-spill response plan and must still get permits for each well it wants to drill. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said it also must inspect and approve various equipment Shell will use for the effort.
Royal Dutch Shell’s Houston-based arm, which also has received approval of its Beaufort and Chukchi exploration plans, hailed the spill-response plan’s approval as a major step toward starting to drill sometime in July. Shell wants to drill six exploratory wells over the next two summers in the Chukchi in shallow waters about 70 miles from the coast. It must stop drilling 38 days before when ice typically starts building up in the water around Nov. 1.
Shell has spent over $4 billion toward its ambitions to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas since 2005, when it first started acquiring leases. But litigation and appeals of various stages of Shell’s application have delayed its plans.
“It’s been a long process, perhaps a torturous process, for Shell,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said earlier this month. “I think it’s safe to say they are close to the end.”
Environmental and Alaskan native groups have opposed the drilling. They contend that no proven technology exists to clean crude from the icy waters or to contain a spill and that scientific gaps remain on how drilling would affect ecological, subsistence and cultural resources such as wildlife.
“The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster showed how difficult it is to respond to a major oil spill even in relatively benign conditions in an area with plenty of infrastructure,” Andrew Hartsig, the Ocean Conservancy’s Arctic program director, said in a statement.
Cindy Shogan, executive director with the Alaska Wilderness League, said the Obama administration can and should reject individual well permits to prevent drilling from starting or the president could “be left with the next major oil spill disaster on his hands – and the destruction of one of our planet’s most vital ecosystems.”
Pete Slaiby, Alaska exploration manager for Shell, said in an email his company’s drilling plans “will continually be guided by our extensive Arctic expertise, solid scientific understanding of the environment and world-class capabilities.”
The Interior Department said it worked with Shell and other agencies to revamp the company’s spill plan multiple times, bearing in mind the Arctic’s unique conditions, so it could handle a spill five times bigger than under a previous proposal.
Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said Shell probably wanted an answer on the Chukchi spill plan a few weeks ago but the regulators needed more time. He insisted the department would do due diligence on the rest of Shell’s application while giving the company a firm answer in time to meet its schedule.
Officials also said the spill plan incorporates lessons learned from the 2010 spill. It stipulates Shell would have systems — which will be tested — to cap and contain a blowout, and an extra rig that could drill a relief well. Additionally, they stressed that Shell would have tougher drilling safety equipment, including stronger blowout preventers.
James Watson, director of the safety agency, said if a spill occurred Shell would have six nearby vessels, including one with the containment system, that could respond right away and a BSEE inspector would be on board at all times. Officials said that the Coast Guard, with vessels nearby as well and a land presence, would oversee spill response and that safety exercises are underway.
“It’s truly a phenomenal collection of capability,” Hayes said.
Environmentalists nonetheless weren’t convinced.
Hartsig pointed to a recent blowout of Spanish company Repsol’s onshore exploratory well on Alaska’s North Slope in saying Interior’s optimism about Shell’s plan is misplaced.
“While it is an onshore gas well, it illustrates an important point that even major companies experience accidents,” Hartsig said.
Hayes told reporters that the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department were still assessing the ongoing blowout and would continue to monitor it.
The Interior Department also defended “the extensive information that already exists on the Arctic” and said it was launching a program where companies that explore and drill there gather more data to inform future policy decisions. Hartsig said he’d still like to see a more comprehensive science plan.
But he offered cautious praise for another new plan announced by Interior for assessing and managing areas that “support special wildlife, land or water resources, as well as areas important for the subsistence and culture of local communities.”
Shell noted that additional drilling up in the Arctic could supply more oil to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which running just one-third of its capacity. The U.S. government believes the Arctic outer continental shelf areas have 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Hayes has defended what he called the “conservative decision” to require Shell to stop Chukchi drilling 38 days before Nov. 1, roughly when ice starts building up in the water. He said the Beaufort Sea plan lacks that restriction because ice poses less concern there.
“We had a lot of questions about that,” Murkowski said. “But that’s something Shell will have to live with.”
