Shell Pushes To Drill In Arctic ("safer than deepwater drilling in Gulf of Mexico")

[mike r]

Source: Wall Street Journal

A Royal Dutch Shell PLC executive told a commission investigating the BP PLC oil spill Wednesday that drilling off the coast of Alaska was safer than deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. He then faced challenges from a fellow panelist who said responding to a spill in Arctic waters would be much harder.

"It is adequate to proceed," Joe Leimkuhler, an offshore well delivery manager for Shell Exploration and Production, told the National Commission on the BP-Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Shell repeatedly has said it plans to drill in 150 feet of water, not the mile-foot depths BP was exploring. "In the Arctic the operating environment is indeed fundamentally different," he said. He added that Shell plans to have "a flotilla of vessels" accompany drilling ships in the Arctic.

But Carter Roberts, the president of the World Wildlife Fund, said the Arctic region had few people, few ports, and little Coast Guard presence. "A response gap is much more present than in the Gulf," Roberts told the panel. Also missing: the oil-eating bacteria that have been credited with naturally degrading the oil. "It doesn't have the microbes, those wonderful microbes that began to consume oil in the Gulf."

Shell has much at stake as the presidential commission investigates the BP spill, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The company had wanted to drill exploratory wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas this summer when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20. Within five weeks, U.S. President Barack Obama put the drilling plans on hold until the commission could complete a review of the disaster.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100825-710058.html

[hatrack]

1. You can trust us! We're experts! It's much safer surrounded by ice days from the nearest port!

Really!

[CLANG]

4. Right! Even though BP claimed to be experts, they really weren't

But we at SHELL are world renowned experts in oil exploration. That's the ticket!!

[Chulanowa]

6. Ice? In the Arctic?

In 2010?

Pffffffft!

[w4rma]

2. I despise these people. They have no shame. (nt)

[glinda]

3. Lies lies lies lies lies

[pitohui]

5. safer from what ? publicity?

drilling in the gulf is safer, warmer water = more oil-eating microbes, as we've learned the disaster to wildlife etc whilst terrible appears to be nowhere near as terrible as projected based on experiences in cold waters (exxon valdez)

people in the gulf want to work and want to drill or at least in louisiana they do, don't make excuses, just get out there and start doing it SAFELY with the proper alarms, equipment, etc.

we don't need to send our jobs up to a bunch of guys in alaska

my spidey sense says that the only thing that's "safer" about the arctic is the big hassle for bloggers, reporters, etc. to get up there and see what's going on, anybody can hop in their car and drive to grand isle and have a look at the beaches, not too many are gonna hop into some puddle jumper and fly thru arctic blizzards to see what's going on

[Odin2005]

7. This is insanity.

[Cleobulus]

8. I like how they lie...

In the arctic they have to worry much more about the weather, and much more often, not to mention drifting ice, freezing temperatures that will be hell on equipment and piping, yeah, that's a whole lot safer than the gulf. The only danger in the gulf are hurricanes and tropical storms, which are seasonal, in addition the equipment is more likely to fail because of incompetence rather than temperature. Not to mention the Arctic only matches the Antarctic in isolation from the rest of the planet, due to this its much more dangerous.