Posted on 05/06/2015 4:55:08 AM PDT by thackney
A ruling by the city of Seattle may throw a wrench into Shell’s Arctic drilling plans, but it won’t delay the company’s plans to bore two new wells in the Chukchi Sea this summer, a top executive vowed Tuesday.
Although “it’s not my preferred approach . . . we have backup plans,” said Ann Pickard, Royal Dutch Shell’s executive vice president for the Arctic. “I don’t think this will delay the program.”
At issue is Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s ruling this week that the city port must obtain a new land-use permit to serve as a home base for Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs and support vessels. Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development concluded that Shell’s plans to moor its ships at the port’s Terminal 5 — before sending them north to Alaska — fall outside the scope of the existing permit and underlying environmental analysis authorizing the site to function as a cargo terminal.
It could take weeks to obtain new permits. But Pickard insists that won’t derail Shell’s Arctic quest.
“The best place we figured out was Terminal 5, and we would like to see that come through,” Pickard said in an interview on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference. “If that doesn’t work, there are other alternatives, but that is the ideal location, and it will provide a lot of jobs and income for Seattle, and I think it is the right way to go.”
Pickard did not volunteer specifics, but Shell’s contracted Polar Pioneer drilling rig is now moored at Port Angeles, Wash. And its contracted drillship Noble Discoverer is en route to the area. During its last round of Arctic drilling, in 2012, Shell briefly stationed its rigs at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, but most of its work to repair and refurbish drilling rigs was conducted at the Seattle port.
“It’s unfortunate,” Pickard said of the recent Seattle setback. “There are other ports that would like us to be there, and they continue to be supportive.”
In Seattle, Shell’s Arctic quest is clashing with the area’s environmental sensibilities. Environmentalists have raised objections to using Shell as a home base for an Arctic drilling campaign they say jeopardizes the area’s fragile ecosystem and risks unleashing more fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.
Activists have been planning to greet the 400-foot-long Polar Pioneer when it moves to the Port of Seattle, with some threatening to use a flotilla of kayaks to box the ship in.
Shell has spent some $6 billion in its latest quest for Arctic oil but its brief drilling program in 2012 left it with just one half-finished well in the Chukchi Sea. Although Pickard counts that initial “top hole” well as one of “several successful achievements in 2012″ the endeavor was marred by mishaps, including the grounding of its Kulluk drilling rig on an Alaskan island later that year.
Shell is planning to return to its same target, the Burger prospect about 70 miles off the Alaska coast. Although oil prices are relatively low now _ reaching above $60 per barrel in trading Tuesday _ the company has its eye on potential production years from now.
Yea, take your evil high paying jobs and go somewhere that wants you! Boeing learned and moved jobs.
This is a great example of government thuggery.
There is no “environmental issue” with the actual docking at the port. It’s just the environmentalists don’t like what the company is going to do with what is in the port, when it leaves later.
So, they use the apparently unlimited and dictatorial powers of the government to unilaterally block the company from using what it paid for.
We see it in supposedly public institutions banning some businesses from operating because they don’t like the politics of the owner of the company.
Wait, what are those big white round things behind the ships. Tanks?!?!? Could those tanks contain oil and refined petroleum products? I wonder where that stuff comes from??????
If you want to see a public example of government lunacy, read the city council comments at:
‘How Did This Happen’: Shell Using Seattle Ports For Arctic Drilling Rigs
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/11/3632389/seattle-says-no-drilling-rigs-baby/
Funny how they let the Alaska fishing boats in for repairs. After all the fishing boats are raping the ocean........
Oh yeah. I can totally see how using Terminal 5 as a cargo terminal falls outside it's stated purpose of being a cargo terminal. :-/
If that doesn’t work, there are other alternatives, but that is the ideal location, and it will provide a lot of jobs and income for Seattle...
Well, can't have that. Not without the right payoffs to union and government thugs. Besides, the government would rather have all those people under it's thumb, living off their dole rather than have them economically independent. {shudder} Why, they might get the crazy idea they didn't need the nanny state controlling every facet of their lives.
Only insane leftists would chase away good paying jobs. These Gaia worshippers are complete idiots who ultimately will get what they deserve.
See if that doesn't get the point across.
Minorities in Seattle are the ones that will loose these high paying jobs, they are forced to move to a Port with few Minorities.
How is that diversity?
BP, ExxonMobil and ConcocoPhillips/Phillips66 are not going forgo revenue to help Shell.
That’s the problem: the enviroweenies all cooperate together with thug, liberal regimes to coerce the oil companies, but they don’t combine to push back.
You describe a loosing situation and an illegal act.
The belief that NO company would ever fill that void is silly.
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