Shell's Arctic Drilling Mission Begins Without Oil Recovery Vessel

CDNBear

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Shell's Arctic Drilling Mission Begins Without Oil Recovery Vessel

By Stephanie Pedersen
SUNDAY JULY 15, 2012

Oil and gas corporation Royal Dutch Shell (commonly known as Shell) has launched its offshore oil drilling fleet to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in Alaska without the accompaniment of its oil recovery barge, which continues to await the US Coast Guard’s certification. It remains docked in Washington while the rest of the fleet has sailed North to Alaska, with several of the ships already arriving, and the window of seasonal opportunity to drill in the Arctic diminishing. The decision to allow the fleet to sail without the containment barge has come under criticism from environmental groups who have now filed a lawsuit against the United States government for allowing Shell to drill in the Arctic in the first place, given the controversial status of the company’s Arctic oil recovery plan.

The Coast Guard has not certified the Arctic Challenger because of concerns about the fire protection system, wiring and piping on the thirty-seven year old vessel. The Coast Guard also has doubts about the barge’s ability to withstand harsh arctic storms. Shell is working with the Coast Guard to address these issues. The containment barge is essential to the fleet as it is designed to deliver oil spill and control equipment to the five drilling sites proposed by Shell. Without it, in the event of an oil spill, Shell would be without access to the equipment necessary to totally control a spill.

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Ahhh yes, lets start poking holes in an environmentally sensitive area, without all the necessary emergency measures in place.

Good call.
 

SLM

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Mar 5, 2011
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Oh this seems smart. Nothing like a 'cross your fingers and hope for the best' attitude to instill confidence.
 

TenPenny

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I'm sure that the usual collection of folks will arrive soon, to point out that anyone who expects Shell to have any sort of equipment on site is simply an environmental wingnut who is holding up progress, and obviously shouldn't be allowed to use power or anything plastic.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

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I read they are sailing the fleet to the drill site. I am wondering if they are actually going to drill before the other ship arrives or just do prep work? If so, this would be negligent.

Does Shell Oil have only 1 or only have access to 1 of these types of ships?
 

taxslave

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I can see getting the drills set up and doing whatever is necessary to start the holes without the recovery barge but drilling without it would be like highlead logging in the summer with no fire truck.
 

captain morgan

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I think it's fair to say that there is a lot of work (and time) to get done before any oil will be flowing. Setting up the location and drill platform will probably take weeks.

By the time the oil is ready to flow, the barge will have been onsite and ready
 

L Gilbert

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I read they are sailing the fleet to the drill site. I am wondering if they are actually going to drill before the other ship arrives or just do prep work? If so, this would be negligent.

Does Shell Oil have only 1 or only have access to 1 of these types of ships?
I was thinking along the same lines. But even then, it'd probably have been better to have been safe than sorry.