A massive campaign to free a grounded Arctic drilling rig that employed more than a dozen ships and some 730 people cleared a big hurdle Monday, as salvagers pulled the vessel to safe harbor in Alaska.  More »

Salvagers are preparing to try pulling Shell’s grounded Arctic drilling rig from a rocky Alaskan island’s coast as soon as critical equipment arrives on the scene and weather permits _ possibly before the weekend’s end.  More »

The grounding of Shell’s Kulluk drilling rig amid a fierce storm in the Gulf of Alaska raised the specter of a fuel spill in the region and provided fresh fodder to drilling foes who insist Arctic oil exploration is too risky to allow. The episode also cast doubt on whether Shell Oil Co. will be able to resume its hunt for Arctic oil this year.  More »

Shell’s Kulluk drilling rig ran aground Monday night near Alaska’s Kodiak Island after a five-day fight to tow the vessel through a fierce storm and 70-mph winds.  More »

The Coast Guard and Shell are still working to rescue an offshore drilling rig and a tugboat stranded in high seas about 50 miles south of Kodiak, Alaska.  More »

Noble Corp. said Thursday it was working to repair problems with the safety, pollution-control and propulsion systems on its drillship Discoverer, fresh off a tour hunting for Arctic oil for Shell.  More »

Shell began boring its first well in the Chukchi Sea in more than two decades on Sunday, kicking off what company executives anticipate will be years of work tapping prospects throughout U.S. Arctic waters.  More »

Coast Guard-ordered improvements to a key support vessel may be another impediment to Shell’s plans to search for oil this summer under Arctic waters in Alaska.  More »

For four years, the public face of Shell’s Alaska venture has been working to convince federal regulators and native Alaskans that the company’s plans to search for crude underneath arctic waters can be done safely, without harming whales, walruses and the subsistence hunters that depend on them for food.  More »

In “The Eskimo and the Oil Man,” author Bob Reiss tells the story of planned oil exploration in Arctic waters through the eyes of an Inupiat leader from the North Slope and Shell Alaska’s vice president. Reiss fields our questions about the book and what he learned during his research.  More »

Shell appears closer than ever to securing airtight environmental permits for proposed drilling in Arctic waters near Alaska, but a company executive today warned the work may not get under way unless the government approves planned projects in both the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.  More »

Blocked for about four years from developing several leases offshore Alaska, the supermajor says slow action from regulators undermines confidence in the federal government’s offshore program.  More »