Shell says it will cease Alaska offshore Arctic drilling
Source: AP
By DAN JOLING
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Royal Dutch Shell will cease exploration in Arctic waters off Alaska's coast following disappointing results from an exploratory well backed by billions in investment and years of work.
The announcement was a huge blow to Shell, which was counting on offshore drilling in Alaska to help it drive future revenue. Environmentalists, however, had tried repeatedly to block the project, and welcome the news.
Shell found indications of the oil and gas in the well in the Chukchi Sea about 80 miles off Alaska's northwest coast, the company said Monday in a release from The Hague, Netherlands. However, the petroleum was not in quantities sufficient to warrant additional exploration in that portion of the basin, the company said.
"Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.," said Marvin Odum, president of Shell USA, in the announcement. "However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin."
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6da27576d03c4aa59088bc7e54f58c83/shell-says-it-will-cease-alaska-arctic-exploration-cites
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Beriniga must have been quite a beautiful landmass 'back in the day'
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)They will probably create a new Middle Eastern war first to disrupt the flow of oil. Then fracking and Arctic drilling will be profitable again.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)goes up.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)And for all those who risked life and limb protesting when Shell invaded Seattle's waterfront.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I just hope they didn't do much damage with whatever drilling they did do.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)because " backed by billions in investment and years of hard work" made me smile?
Tom Kitten
(7,347 posts)Nice to learn just before I turn in!
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Really, too good to be true, except it is true!
Production rigs extracting oil would be subject to punishing storms, shifting ice and months of operating in the cold and dark.
A spill like BP's Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf would have been impossible to control or contain, given the harsh conditions in the Chukchi Sea. One comment following the OP link:
No one can clean up an oil spill in 40 below zero, 50 mph winds making for 90 below wind chill, consistent dark, polar bears at your heels in an Arctic Ocean that is covered in ice at least 9 months out of the year.
OakCliffDem
(1,274 posts)They will be back next year, and drill TWO wells. These capitalists smell money, and they will not quit until the Arctic ice cap is floating on a layer of thick, black crude.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Shell said today it had made a marginal discovery of oil and gas with its summer exploration in the Chukchi Sea but not enough to continue to the search for the foreseeable future.
Shell has spent over $7bn (£4.6bn) on its failed hunt for oil which critics said could only endanger one of the worlds last pristine environments and produce expensive hydrocarbons that were no longer needed.
Shell said it would have to take a hit of around $4.1bn on future earnings as a result of the decision but it is unclear what the final bill will be.
The company has already come under increasing pressure from shareholders worried about plunging oil prices, a planned merger with rival BG as well as the costs of what has so far been a futile search in the Chukchi Sea.
.............
Doitnow
(1,103 posts)Shell will now claim a "business loss" so they can get tax relief?