Posted on 02/06/2012 5:23:49 AM PST by thackney
It's the billion-dollar question in Alaska for 2012: Will this be the year Shell Oil begins large-scale offshore exploratory drilling in Arctic waters?
Two months into 2012, the oil giant is beyond the lead time it said it needed to assemble the flotilla of support vessels that must accompany drill ships to leases in the remote Chukchi and Beaufort seas. But Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby remains hopeful drilling can begin when Arctic Ocean ice melts this summer, even as he awaits a green light from regulators.
"There is clearly more certainty with the regulatory process than we've had in previous years," Slaiby said in an interview. President Obama in July created an interagency working group to coordinate energy development in Alaska. Discussions with Shell have been fruitful, Slaiby said. "There's a lot of questions coming back from the regulators: How does this work, when will you have this in place? What are your competencies? How do you ensure it will work? This is stuff we had all thought out," Slaiby said. "It was not like it is new stuff, or somebody was coming back with something we hadn't thought about. But they are clearly now front and center in asking questions and in really doing the things that the public demands."
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
shhhh....
Obama’s commies are listening.....
if they hear you, they will SHUT YOU DOWN!
How do you drill with shifting ice?
They drill in summer ice free.
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