This approval means the Obama administration is leaving the fate of the Arctic up to Shell this summer.
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President Barack Obama has called US oil production an “important” source of energy in defense of his move to allow Shell to drill in the Alaskan Arctic.
The newly modified drilling permit, issued Monday by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, gives Shell a chance to complete its Burger J well before a Sept. 28 deadline to finish the work.
Critics have also pointed out to the fact that Shell has not operated in the Chukchi Sea since 2012, when the company faced a number of safety and operational difficulties, including an oil rig running aground.
The gear is on the Fennica, a leased Finnish icebreaker that suffered hull injury July three because it left Dutch Harbor, a port within the Aleutians Islands. But Shell couldn’t get permission to drill into oil-bearing layers until its missing icebreaker and the well-capping stack on its stern returned from the Lower 48.
Shell’s Megan Baldino declined to provide details on the progress of drilling since then, saying only, “we continue to make progress on the well”.
The groups praise Obama for his overall body of work, but they consider the approval of exploratory drilling in the Arctic a stain on his environmental legacy.
Shell is therefore being allowed to drill down into oil-bearing zones in its Burger J well, which is in about 140 feet of water off Alaska’s northwest coast some 70 miles from the village of Wainwright. “Granting Shell the permit to drill in the Arctic was the wrong decision, and this fight is far from over”. Arctic oil and natural gas represent incredible potential for American energy security, jobs and revenue for the government.
Shell has been drilling the well for more than two weeks.
Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman, said Monday that the company remained on its planned schedule for drilling this summer.
The company remains limited to the top section of the Burger V well. When President Obama announced his Clean Power Plan last week, he committed the U.S.to leading the world in addressing climate change, but giving Shell the green light to exploit the Arctic Ocean for profit completely contradicts that commitment.
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But the plan has faced still opposition from environmental activists, who say drilling there will cause damage to the wildlife and habitat.
