Report finds serious flaws with Shell’s Arctic drilling program

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Equipment failures, environmental violations and lack of oversight need to be addressed before moving ahead with drilling plans

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Feds tell Shell to rethink Arctic offshore drilling plans.

* More coverage of Shell’s Arctic drilling program

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Eager to exploit the Arctic for fossil fuel resources and to live up to shareholder expectations, Royal Dutch Shell rushed into its offshore drilling program without being “fully prepared in terms of fabricating and testing certain critical systems and establishing the scope of its operational plans,” according to a U.S. Department of Interior report released this week.

Key failures included Shell’s inability to get certification for an oil spill containment system  required to be on site in the event of a loss of well control. The report said the company’s failure to deploy the system was due “to shortcomings in Shell’s management and oversight of key contractors.”

The review was launched after a string of well-publicized problems culminated with a runaway drill rig that ended up running aground on a remote Alaskan island. The company is also under investigation for a string of violations of various environmental requirements. In February, Shell announced a one year pause in its Arctic drilling program to address the shortcomings. (more…)

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Environment: Drill rig runs aground on Alaskan island

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-65 Jayhawk helicopter crew delivers personnel to the conical drilling unit Kulluk, southeast of Kodiak, Alaska, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Response crews have been fighting severe weather in the Gulf of Alaska while working with the Kulluk and its tow vessel Aiviq. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Klingenberg.

A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-65 Jayhawk helicopter crew delivers personnel to the conical drilling unit Kulluk, southeast of Kodiak, Alaska, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Response crews have been fighting severe weather in the Gulf of Alaska while working with the Kulluk and its tow vessel Aiviq. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Klingenberg.

Shell Oil struggling with keeping control off its Arctic oil drilling equipment

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — While pressing ahead with plans for offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, Shel Oil has been unable to maintain control of its equipment. In the latest accident, one of the company’s oil drilling ships ran aground New Year’s Eve on the southeast shoreline of Sitkalidak Island, about 250 miles south of Anchorage.

The Kulluk was part of the Shell’s test drilling program last summer. According to the company, the vessel was loaded with about 139,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 12,000 gallons of other oil-based drilling and mechanical fluids. (more…)

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Environment: Lawsuit seeks Arctic drilling safety test data

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

A polar bear in the Arctic. Photo courtesy Dr. Kathy Crane, NOAA.

Group says feds missed deadline for responding to FOIA request

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — While federal officials say they’re satisfied with Puget Sound tests of Shell’s proposed Arctic-ready capping stack system, a watchdog group says some critical safety information hasn’t been released to the public.

The unreleased testing data could reveal whether there could be an Arctic repeat of the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico when Shell starts drilling in the Arctic, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group filed a lawsuit this week to force the release of the information.

Federal officials said in June that the safety equipment meets new standards set to guard against another distastrous spill. Following the announcement, retired University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner, a PEER board member described as an oil spill expert, requested the actual Shell cap-test data under the Freedom of Information Act. (more…)

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Oil companies bid $712 million for Gulf leases

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Conservation groups challenge lease sale with lawsuit

A NOAA graphic shows various types of offshore drilling platforms, including: conventional fixed platforms (1 & 2); compliant tower (3); vertically moored tension leg and mini-tension leg platform (4 & 5);Spar (6); Semi-submersibles (7 & 8)lFloating production, storage, and offloading facility (9); sub-sea completion and tie-back to host facility (10).

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY —Oil companies eager to drill in the Gulf of Mexico lined up to bid on the Western Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 218 this week, with more than 20 companies submitting 241 bids on 191 tracts across more than 1 million acres off the shores of Texas.

The total value of the bids received by the U.S. Department of Interior was about $712 million, Interior Department officials said as they touted their reforms to make drilling safer.

“Today’s lease sale, the first since the tragic events of Deepwater Horizon, continues the Obama administration’s commitment to a balanced and comprehensive energy plan,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who attended the sale and provided opening remarks. “Offshore drilling will never be risk free, but over the last 19 months we have moved quickly and aggressively with the most significant oil and gas reforms in U.S. history to make it safer and more environmentally responsible. Today’s sale is another step in ensuring the safe and responsible development of the nation’s offshore energy resources.” (more…)

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Environment: Ready for another Gulf oil disaster?

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

New oil leasing planned in western Gulf of Mexico

A sea turtle swims near oiled sargassum after last year's Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. PHOTO VIA NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — While biologists are still trying to understand the full ramifications of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration has apparently caved in to political pressure by opening new areas in the Gulf for oil-drilling leases.

Conservation groups immediately protested the proposed leasing, pointing out that many existing leases are inactive, and that the environmental toll from last year’s deep-sea oil spill is still climbing.

University of Georgia researchers have documented areas of sea floor that are still covered with oil residue; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reporting catches of Gulf finfish like red snapper with open and unhealed sores, and University of Central Florida research recently linked the oil spill to more than 150 dead dolphins that have washed up on Gulf coasts since January 2011, including 65 newborn, infants, stillborn or those born prematurely. (more…)

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Conservation groups say Arctic oil-drilling plan is reckless

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Shell gets the OK for exploratory oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

BOEMRE gives conditional OK to Beaufort Sea exploration; Shell still needs approval from EPA and other federal agencies

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — A conditional federal green light for offshore drilling in the Arctic drew immediate fire from environmental groups, who claim the approval ignores the lessons of last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and risks irreversible damage to sensitive marine resources in the region.

Shell Oil must still gain approval from other federal agencies, including the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and must meet a very specific set of conditions, relating to safety, monitoring, reporting and wildlife issues before any drilling takes place. The conditions are outlined in this letter from BOEMRE to Shell.

The approval came after completion of a site-specific environmental assessment which resulted in a formal finding of no significant impact. All the documents are online at this BOEMRE website.

“We base our decisions regarding energy exploration and development in the Arctic on the best scientific information available,” said BOEMRE director Michael R. Bromwich. “We will closely review and monitor Shell’s proposed activities to ensure that any activities that take place under this plan will be conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.” (more…)

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Battle over polar bear habitat heats up

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Oil companies, Alaska challenge federal critical habitat designation in court

A polar bear roams a coastal strand. PHOTO BY SUSANNE MILLER, USFWS.

SUMMIT COUNTY — The legal wrangling over critical polar bear habitat in Alaska will probably go into the history books as one of the fundamental battles over endangered species, global warming and energy politics.

At stake is the very survival of the magnificent Arctic ursine, and the lines are clearly drawn. Living up to its obligation to protect endangered species under the law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared polar bears as threatened, citing the impacts of global warming.

Last month, the The Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the state of Alaska challenged the critical habitat designation for polar bears in court, complaining that the protections for the bears would plans for Arctic oil drilling. (more…)

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Protestors hold sit-in at Department of Interior offices

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Rocky Mountain residents joined with hundreds of other protesters this week in a march to the U.S. Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. to call for an end to offshore oil drilling, coal mining and tar sands oil extraction.

Public land energy development policies at issue for new direct-action groups

By Summit Voice

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SUMMIT COUNTY — Rocky Mountain residents joined with hundreds of other protestors this week in a march to the U.S. Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. to call for an end to offshore oil drilling, coal mining and tar sands oil extraction.

The march, along with a non-violent sit-in at the Department of Interior offices, suggest that activists are preparing to take the battle over public lands to the next level with a direct action campaign. The rhetoric that accompanied the demonstration shows that there is at least one faction of environmental activists growing impatient with the low-key lobbying by mainstream environmental groups.

“Our demonstration today is to show that Wyoming might be small in population but mighty in heart,” said demonstrator Kevin Uransky, a resident of Wyoming’s coalfields area and a member of High Country Rising Tide.  We don’t want to just stand by and allow big corporations to destroy our homes, our way of life, and some of last open, beautiful, and undeveloped terrain left in the United States. We want to show that Wyoming has a voice not to be drowned out by those of more represented states, we have a voice, we have an opinion, and we want to be heard.” (more…)

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Oil Spill: ‘Revenue consistently trumped safety’

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Federal agencies hope to avoid a replay of this scene by restructuring the agencies responsible for overseeing offshore drilling. U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO.

Feds restructure oversight agencies and create a new advisory committee for offshore drilling

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — The federal agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling will separate its environmental review functions from the leasing program and appoint a chief environmental officer in an effort beef up oversight and give science a more prominent role in drilling operations.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement director Michael Bromwich announced the steps last week acknowledging that a conflicting mission and lack of resources prevented the federal government from “fully meeting the challenges of overseeing industry operating in U.S. waters.”

The changes reflected the findings of the national oil spill commission, which found that “revenue consistently trumped safety,” and that science was virtually “shut out” of the considerations, according to co-chair Bob Graham. (more…)

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Incoming Republicans call for more offshore drilling

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig on fire April 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO.

New House majority could push offshore drilling in the Arctic

By Summit Voice

The presumptive next chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee said Sunday on Platts Energy Week television that he would support expanding oil and natural gas development off the East and West coasts of the United States, where it has been ruled out either formally or informally over the last 30 years.

Representative Doc Hastings of Washington state, whom Republicans are expected to select as the committee’s chairman in December, acknowledged that the oil and gas industry needs to show it can drill more safely, in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this year, but suggested that the United States’ need for domestic oil means more Outer Continental Shelf production is critical. (more…)

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