Shell Secures New Authorization in Pursuing Arctic Drilling

JUNEAU, Alaska — Jun 30, 2015: By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press

Royal Dutch Shell has secured another federal authorization as it pursues plans to drill exploration wells in the Arctic waters off the Alaska coast.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday issued a letter of authorization allowing for the possible harassment of polar bears and Pacific walrus incidental to Shell’s drilling program work. Intentional harassment is not permitted.

The authorization includes measures that Shell must take to minimize the effect of its work on the animals, including a minimum spacing of 15 miles between all drill rigs or seismic survey vessels, something conservation groups had sought. Nonetheless, some of those groups still called on President Barack Obama’s administration to stop Arctic drilling. read more

Arctic oil rig departs Seattle-area port despite protest

Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:33pm EDT

(Reuters) – U.S. Coast Guard and police boats cleared a way through protesters in kayaks at a Seattle-area port on Tuesday so a drilling ship could head for the Arctic on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell.

The Noble Discover is the second drilling ship Shell has sent to the area in recent days.

The activists, who have staged frequent demonstrations during the past two months against Royal Dutch Shell’s oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea off mainland Alaska, said 21 protesters in kayaks took to the waters just beyond the Port of Everett north of Seattle where the oil rig launched for sea. read more

Shell oil rig leaves Everett, kayaking protesters detained

By Jennifer Sullivan: Seattle Times staff reporter: 30 June 2015

An oil-drilling rig that was protested by activists in kayaks pulled out of Everett early Tuesday morning, and some of the kayakers were detained by the Coast Guard.

Shell’s Noble Discoverer will join the Polar Pioneer to sink holes in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska. The Polar Pioneer drew the ire of protesters when it was moored at Terminal 5, in Seattle, before heading north earlier this month.

Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said they detained five kayakers off Mukilteo Tuesday morning. Warr said the rig pulled out of Everett at 4 a.m. read more

Polar Pioneer: An Economic Boon For Dutch Harbor

By Emily Schwing, KUCB – Unalaska | June 29, 2015

Billions of dollars worth of drilling equipment and support vessels operated by Royal Dutch Shell are sitting out in the Bay in front of Dutch Harbor this week. The company has plans to take most of that equipment north for exploratory drilling operations later this summer. Many of the local businesses benefit from the oil giant’s presence.

Dutch Harbor is a busy place this time of year.

“The flights are all full, the hotel is full, vehicles – trucks for rent – companies that rent vehicles – they’re all rented.” read more

PHOTO CAPTION FROM RECENT IRISH TIMES ARTICLE: Bríd McGarry, a Mayo landowner, and Mary Corduff, wife of jailed farmer Willie Corduff, after five Mayo farmers were jailed in 2005 for refusing to give an undertaking not to obstruct the construction of the Corrib gas pipe line. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Printed below is a comment on the Irish Times article received from OSSL, the Irish firm currently the subject of an investigation by the Irish police (the Garda) for alleged harassment of parties who received bribes distributed by OSSL on behalf of their disreputable employer, Irish Shell.  read more

U.S. activists to protest against Shell Arctic oil rig

SEATTLE: 30 June 2015

U.S. environmental activists said they planned to protest on Tuesday against the launch of the second of two oil rigs central to Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.

The Washington state activists, who have staged frequent demonstrations over the last two months against Royal Dutch Shell’s oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea off mainland Alaska, said they expected the rig to leave a Seattle-area port in the early morning and were planning a water-borne protest. read more

Shell says could begin Arctic oil exploration off Alaska in late July

SEATTLE/WASHINGTON | BY ERIC M. JOHNSON AND TIMOTHY GARDNER: Mon Jun 29, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell could begin drilling for oil in the Arctic off Alaska as early as the third week in July, when it expects sea ice to begin clearing, a spokesman said on Monday.

The Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived in Dutch Harbor, in Unalaska, off mainland Alaska, early on Saturday morning and will remain there until ice begins clearing over the area in the Chukchi Sea where the company plans to drill through late September, spokesman Curtis Smith said. read more

Corrib gas cost overruns deprive State of €600m in tax

The €2.4 billion cost overrun is largely as a consequence of opposition to the project, which was stimulated in part by poor management of it at its outset.

Peter Murtagh: Tuesday 30 June 2015

The huge cost overrun on Corrib gas, the single most expensive energy infrastructure project in Ireland and the largest since the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric scheme on the Shannon in the 1920s, will deprive the Government of an estimated €600 million in tax revenue.

The €600 million represents 25 per cent of the project’s likely cost overrun of €2.4 billion, much of which was incurred because of changes made to the project since it began.

Had this additional €2.4 billion not been spent on development costs, an extra €600 million would have been paid to the exchequer as tax on profit, which for exploration companies is levied at 25 per cent. However, like all companies, Shell Exploration and Production Ireland, which is a partner with Statoil of Norway and Vermilion Energy of Canada, can write off capital development costs against taxation. read more

Sea ice could keep Shell away from the Arctic until mid July

Posted on June 29, 2015 | By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

WASHINGTON — Thick sea ice could clog the site of Shell’s planned oil wells in the Arctic Ocean until late July, potentially shaving a week off the company’s already narrow window for exploratory drilling in the region.

Shell Oil Co. is still waiting for four federal authorizations to launch any of the work, including drilling permits for two wells in its Burger prospect about 70 miles northwest of the Alaska coastline. With all approvals in hand, the company could begin moving drilling rigs and other vessels through the Bering Strait and toward the Chukchi Sea as early as July 1 and begin boring a well as soon as July 15. read more

By: MICHEAL KAUFMAN: Jun 29, 2015 

Global warming concerns have been receiving more and more media attention, as major oil companies also plan to address the issue, considering its potentially adverse effect on the environment.

Goldeneye, an abandoned offshore natural gas production platform that is connected to the Scottish coast via a 100 kilometer long pipeline, could soon be used to deposit carbon dioxide well below the Earth’s surface. Once operated by Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A), the project could become the world’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that uses a power station, fuelled by natural gas. The European energy major is looking to the UK government to release one billion GBP in funds for the company to develop the project, the Financial Times has reported. read more

Activists deploy against Shell’s arctic plans

By Daniel J. Graeber: June 29, 2015

MUKILTEO, Wash., June 29 (UPI) — Activists said Monday they took to the water off the Washington state coast in kayaks to try to slow progress of a Shell drilling rig bound for arctic waters.

“We know we can’t stop them,” Carlo Voli, a campaigner from advocacy group 350 Seattle, said in an emailed statement. “But we can’t just watch them go; we have to do all we can to slow them down, and get people to focus on what a disaster Arctic drilling would be.” read more

An application to start fracking at a site on the Fylde coast in Lancashire has been rejected by councillors.

Energy firm Cuadrilla wanted to extract shale gas at the Little Plumpton site between Preston and Blackpool.

Lancashire County Council rejected the bid on the grounds of “unacceptable noise impact” and the “adverse urbanising effect on the landscape”.

Cuadrilla said it was “surprised and disappointed” and would consider its “options” regarding an appeal.

A spokesman added: “We remain committed to the responsible exploration of the huge quantity of natural gas locked up in the shale rock deep underneath Lancashire.” read more

Shell’s Arctic oil drill platform Polar Pioneer heaves into Dutch Harbor Alaska

Information and magnificent copyrighted photograph’s kindly provided by Gary Braasch, Photographer & Journalist from World View of Global Warming.org  Please see copyright notice at foot of article. Use your browser to enlarge images. 

Shell’s Arctic oil drill platform Polar Pioneer heaves into Dutch Harbor Alaska — its first port of call in the North for Shell’s plan to drill the Chukchi Sea this summer.

The 300 foot high floating oil rig that Royal Dutch Shell intends to install in the Arctic Ocean’s Chukchi Sea this summer arrived in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Is, Alaska, early on June 27, 2015. Pulled by two ocean-going tugs, the huge machine appeared off Unalaska Island in the pre-dawn, 13 days after it left Seattle WA. In contrast to the active protests, “kayaktivist” flotillas and native American opposition in Puget Sound, there were no apparent protestors at the arrival in the Aleutian Islands. The Polar Pioneer now floats well off the Dutch Harbor airport in front of the steep mountains of Unalaska, the volcanoes like Mt Makushin that make up these islands. Strong winds formed lenticular clouds over the peaks in the dawn light. read more

Corrib gas: Black starts, intelligent pigs and the mechanics of extraction

Peter Murtagh: Monday, 29 June 2015

The mechanics of extracting gas from the Corrib field appear simple enough. It is only when one gets into the detail of the engineering that the complexities emerge.

This is an environment in which a relatively small number of people can spend years – in remote places such as Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia, in the Middle East, or on rigs in the North Sea – living intense lives in dangerous conditions and sometimes speaking a language alien to others.

They talk about “slug catchers” and “intelligent pigs”, about Christmas trees at the bottom of the sea, and about “black starts” – no one wants a black start, but if you are going to operate a terminal like the one now being tested at Bellanaboy in Mayo, someday for sure, you are going to have to do a black start. read more

The Corrib legacy: what the protests achieved

A rerouting of the pipeline and greater public awareness of how Ireland treats its natural resources were among the positive outcomes of the Shell to Sea, campaigners say

Bríd McGarry, a Mayo landowner, and Mary Corduff, wife of jailed farmer Willie Corduff, after five Mayo farmers were jailed in 2005 for refusing to give an undertaking not to obstruct the construction of the Corrib gas pipe line. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Lorna Siggins: Monday June 29, 2015

“You’ve gone very quiet up there.” North Mayo resident Mary Corduff reckons that if she had a euro for every time she heard this remark over the past few months, her purse could be pretty full. “People think because they don’t see us on protesting on the television that we have accepted this, but we haven’t,” Corduff says, looking out of her farmhouse window towards the Corrib gas refinery several miles away. read more

EFCC quizzes former minister, Etete, over OPL 245 oil deal

By Abosede Musari, Abuja on June 29, 2015

FORMER Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, was yesterday quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in continuation of an investigation that had been stalled for several years.

A source told The Guardian that the former minister was granted administrative bail to provide more documents on the alleged $1.1 billion oil deal transfer that was made to Switzerland under his company, Malabu Oil and Gas.

It was reported in the media last week that the EFCC has revived investigations into the Malabu oil deal when Etete was questioned and released to report back last Monday. read more