Shell gets US nod to drill for Arctic oil

The Obama administration on Monday gave oil giant Royal Dutch Shell final permission to conduct exploratory drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska.

“Now that the required well control system is in place and can be deployed, Shell will be allowed to explore into oil-bearing zones”.

Environmental advocates say drilling in the Arctic will deepen the United States’ reliance on oil, harm local wildlife and upset the region’s fragile ecosystem. “Announcing a tour of Alaska to highlight climate change days before giving Shell the final approval to drill in the Arctic Ocean is deeply hypocritical”.

The Shell drilling has produced a split between environmental groups that have cheered President Obama for promoting renewable energy and tightening air pollution standards, and those more radical, rhetorical and nasty.

However, Marissa Knodel from Friends of the Earth said the permit went against US President Barack Obama’s stated commitment to combat climate change.

The Interior Department in May conditionally approved Shell’s drilling plans, but said the company needed several other government permits before it could move forward.

An adverse regulatory decision in June prevents Shell from working at the same time on sites that are less than 15 miles apart, because of the disturbance that would create for walruses, scuppering its plan to drill two wells simultaneously during the summer drilling season. It has until late September, when all work must stop.

However, the Sierra Club, the country’s oldest environmental group, has urged the current administration to cancel sales of oil-zone leases scheduled for 2016 and 2017 and to remove the possibility of drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

“When President Obama visits the Arctic this month, he must face the communities he is sacrificing to Shell’s profits”.

Initially the company planned to drill six wells, in the north-east of the Chukchi Sea, 40 meters deep each.

A Shell spokesman stressed that the company is focused on safety. The company has also spent more than $7 billion on exploration works.

According to estimates by the US Geological Survey in the Arctic has as yet undiscovered oilfields with total reserves of 90 billion barrels of oil, equivalent to 20% of the world’s untapped reserves.