Shell Receives OK to Drill in Beaufort Sea: EXPLORATION: Critics Say a More Thorough Look at Impacts is Lacking.

By Richard Richtmyer, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Feb. 21–The U.S. Minerals Management Service has approved Shell’s plan to drill as many as a dozen exploration wells over the next two years in the Beaufort Sea.

The agency, which supervises oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s vast offshore regions, on Tuesday released an environmental assessment of the planned drilling and said its analysis found that the project would not cause “undue or serious harm or damage to the human, marine or coastal environment.”

Last month, Shell filed its exploration plan with the agency, detailing its intent to drill as many as a dozen offshore wells over the next two years. The ambitious exploration project would include two drilling ships and a small fleet of other vessels to support the drilling ships and prevent them from getting jammed in the ice.

Environmental groups are protesting the approval, saying federal officials should allow a more thorough public evaluation of its potential impact on the environment and the North Slope’s indigenous people before allowing any drilling.

Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing five Alaska environmentalist groups, urged MMS officials to prepare a much more detailed environmental impact statement, which could take years, before allowing the drilling to happen. They said Shell’s activity could harm the bowhead whales, polar bears, migratory birds and other area wildlife. The whales are listed as an endangered species.

“The bowhead whale is the species of greatest concern,” said Deirdre McDonnell, an attorney with the firm.

The oil exploration work, particularly seismic surveys that involve firing underwater air guns to study rock formations beneath the sea floor, could spook the whales and force them further offshore, making it more difficult for Native hunters to take them, McDonnell said.

An Alaska Native group called Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands also weighed in, urging the agency to conduct a more thorough review of the drilling project’s potential environmental impact.

Most of the drilling would be in western Camden Bay, where exploratory wells have been drilled before.

Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, returned to Alaska in 2005 and immediately became the company most avidly interested in the oil prospects offshore of the North Slope. It spent more than $44 million to acquire Beaufort Sea exploratory leases that year.

The Dutch oil giant was part of a partnership that discovered an estimated 200 million barrels of oil in a find called Hammerhead in 1985-86. That would be a medium-sized North Slope field, but a large one in the Lower 48. The Hammerhead prospect is now named Sivulliq, and Shell plans to drill there to outline the oil field.

The MMS documents released Tuesday hint that Shell will be doing more than just probing the waters looking for crude. They say that the company plans to take samples from the sea floor between Sivulliq and the shore, which suggests some sort of production plan.

Some drilling and other work would take place in waters near the village of Kaktovik. Robert Thompson, an Inupiat whaler who lives there, said he is concerned that the offshore activity could hurt his village’s whaling activities.

Thompson said the MMS needs to consider not just Shell’s activities over the next two years but all of the oil industry activity over time in the region.

Shell executives in Alaska and MMS officials in the state said Tuesday they couldn’t comment until they had permission from their superiors.

In its exploration plan, Shell spelled out a bowhead whale monitoring program that includes using spotters aboard ships and in aircraft as well as drone aircraft that will be used to keep an eye on the whales in the area and head off any adverse impacts so as to avoid any potential disruptions in their migration patterns.

The MMS in its environmental assessment concluded there would be minimal disturbance to the bowhead whales, citing prior exploration drilling under a similar scenario to the one Shell is planning.

Shell plans to start its drilling campaign this summer. However, it still must clear a series of other regulatory hurdles before it can begin the work.

That includes reaching a “conflict avoidance agreement” with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the Whaling Captain’s Association of Kaktovik, according to a letter MMS officials sent the company Tuesday.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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