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Shell
Shell's Noble Discoverer drilling rig sits above an oil field in Alaska's Chukchi Sea on Saturday, Sept. 8.
More than 20 years after the last drill bit went into the Chukchi Sea floor off northern Alaska, a Shell drilling rig on Sunday began work that the company hopes will lead to a bonanza that adds to its bottom line and extends Alaska's oil economy.
"Today marks the culmination of Shell’s six-year effort to explore for potentially significant oil and gas reserves, which are believed to lie under Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf," Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby said in a statement.
Welcomed by the Obama administration, the exploration in Alaska's Arctic waters has become a major battleground for environmental groups, which fear oil spills in the pristine area already threatened by warming temperatures and reduced sea ice.
"The melting Arctic is a dire warning, not an invitation to make a quick buck," said Dan Howells, a campaign director for Greenpeace.
Shell has paid the U.S. $2.8 billion for lease rights to areas in the Chukchi and neighboring Beaufort Sea, and the U.S. estimates those waters hold 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
On Aug. 30, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that Shell, even though its spill response barge was not yet certified by the Coast Guard, would be permitted to drill pilot holes and then dig what's called a cellar to hold a critical safety device.
The pilot holes will be 1,300 feet below the ocean floor and roughly 4,000 feet above a known petroleum reservoir.
Marvin Odum, Shell Oil president, discusses Tropical Storm Debby and its impact on oil production, oil drilling in Alaska and more, with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo.
Shell argues there's little chance of a spill like BP's 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster. Drilling will be in water about 130 feet deep, it says, versus 5,000 at the site of the gulf spill, and wellhead pressure is expected to be far less.
Support vessels could quickly choke off and cleanup any spill, Shell adds.
Workers on Friday moored the drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, in heavy seas with eight anchors that each weigh 15 tons. The diameter of the circular pattern of anchors is more than 6,500-feet, it added.
The immediate goal is to dig a 20-by-40-foot mud-line cellar that will house a blowout preventer below the seafloor, protecting it from ice scraping the bottom.
Shell's oil spill response barge remains in Bellingham, Wash., and is expected to undergo sea trials over the weekend, Shell said.
Shell
This illustration shows how far drilling will go for now, as well as what the cellar for the blowout preventer will look like.
Shell last explored in the area in 1991, but it was not economically viable to produce from there at the time.
Shell's other Arctic Ocean drill ship, the Kulluk, is in the Beaufort Sea waiting for the fall whale hunt to end before moving to the drill site.
The company isn't expecting to drill for oil until next year, since it only has a few weeks before sea ice forms in the area. It will then resume drilling next summer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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I @!$%#ing can't believe this............Obama welcomes Shell drilling in the arctic. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CONCERNS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. I'm very disappointed in Obama for caving in...........what's next. Thought I could trust this man.......I was wrong.
I've called him Black Bush from the start. He's basically boy george in disguise. I can't believe all these retarded conservatives don't like him... he's just like them. When's the last time he truely did anything like a real Democrat?
FYI: This deal was penned back in'06; don't blame Obama fro this one.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One whole drilling rig. This is nothing more than a big monkey show by BHO to say "look at what I did".
I read the rules of off shore drilling. The way I read it, no drilling was to take place unless a clean up barge is on site. What is the hurry before the election........er, I mean the ice forming for winter?
Trust a politician LOL
A tangent--They mentioned delays for Inuit whaling season: I don't have a problem if the natives want to maintain their old ways including some whaling. Old ways should NOT include exploding harpoons, engines, modern boats or modern anything. No compasses, no radios, no metals, no plastic......etc.
Wilbert123
Why do I have so much trouble making sense of your statement?
No wilbert it because you're a barely functioning illiterate and incredibly ignorant. Otherwise you would have something worthwhile to add to the discussion. Instead we get mindless, ignorant hatred which you seem to specialize in.
I just noticed you just joined. You're just a POS Troll. Go be a troll someplace else. Adults are talking here.
Dennis,
(((I think you ran off Wilbert...thanks from ALL the rest of us! lol)))
Anybody want to start a pool based on the date they have their first blowout??
Who gets the $2.8 BILLION from the lease ? If we hand out about another thousand of these leases we can wipe out the deficit.
I believe when Bush penned this with Shell back in '06 it was to go to China to try and reduce the debt of 12 trillion dollars that Bush borrowed.
Hurray!!!!
Shell needs to be shut down! The polar caps are already melting at an alarming rate an now this? A;aska is THEEEE last frontier. There is a lot of wildlife that are now in immediate risk. I think we have all heard it before. "Don't worry about another oil spill" that isn't going to happen with us and IF it does we will clean it up, trust me no one is going to get hurt. Go Drill on BUSH'S property in Texas will ya?
They already are drilling on bushes property, and this has nothing to do with bush. You boyfriend Obama f-ed this one.
nope This was part of the loan agreement he made with China when he borrowed 12 TRILLION dollars from them. Then said that because of the oil deal it would only take the taxpayers 15 years to pay it all back.
Ok so they allow drilling... Of course its off shore.... And of course the f-ing oil company took the bait. The time bomb is ticking. Stupid for allowing off shore drilling in Alaska (anywhere for that matter), stupid for the MF oil company jumping at the chance. We are so F-ed.... Thanks Obama administration, way to lead...
There will be a spill, there always is. Give it time, someone will cut corners or do something to save time. Same old crap just in a different place now. Does Dawn work on Polar Bear Fur? Moot Point anyway, anything that gets oil on it up there will freeze to death.
Yes, the bottom line.
Lets all sacrifice anything and everything for that bottom line.
You know, the bottom line that's potentially fat because they might make a lot of money, but isn't so fat after the CEO's get paid and the accountants use every loophole the lobbyists bought for them.
Well at least the stock has some upside potential for awhile.
In the end, we won't see any price relief for consumers no matter how much oil they find or how easy it is to get at.
It's rigged game, people. It's the modern version of the old 3-card Monty.
Wilbert, you're just an ignorant, hateful POS Troll. Please go away. You are not welcome here.
Amen, flylowguy You are telling the truth here, totally agree with you.
why can't the state decide if it wants this or not, why is it that the feds and every other person in america has to get involved with how they run their state assets, seems every alaskan gets a nice check every year from the oil they are already taking out of the state...much rather see alaskans getting more money than the iranians...its because of all this BS they aren't making a real good deal for themselves and all that pristine land up there no one in the lower 48 will ever see and can't see is just as pristine now as it was before they discovered oil up there, because they are demanding it with their own agreements with oil companies something the feds could care less about
@Alaskan's have been getting dividend checks but from the looks of things they're getting smaller. In 2000 they were $1963 but for 2011 they were $1174. This represents a diminishing amount of oil being pumped I guess. 2008 was the peak at $2069.
http://www.apfc.org/home/Content/dividend/dividendamounts.cfm
Oh well, so it goes I guess.
Dennis,
Must be function of volume and price because production is about 1/3 to 1/4 of peak and droping by some 10% per yr.
I'm a right wing fiscal conservative and even I think this is a bad idea!
dave,
I don't know, all energy options have major issues. Obviously we need to get off of fossil fuels as fast as practical but meanwhile I loath sending my money to our frenemies. And our economy needs all the help it can get. ((BTW--I'm neither dem nor con but I am a fiscal con--unfortunately those are almost non-existent in Washington today))
They are building a cellar to house the blowout preventer, so ice will not damage it if it scraps the floor of the ocean. Does that mean Icebergs are a problem in that area and if so don't they get as big as Manhattan? I can see why they would need an anchor that would weigh 15 tons!
I cannot believe Obama has let this happen. Oh, yes i can because, he is a liar, cheater and a self absorbed, eggotistical jerk. He always caters to the rich. Alaska is one of the few places that is untouched and so pristine, its all going to get ruined because of the drilling that will be happening. Very sad this has been approved.
" its all going to get ruined because of the drilling that will be happening" You are so right. So why don't you do your part to reduce the demand for oil? Stop driving, don't use anything made of plastic, don't use anything that needs transportation to get to market, and get rid of your computer.
Shell argues there's little chance of a spill like BP's
Yes, I'm sure we can trust this entirely.
Sad that the U.S. will lease this to Shell, who will drill and sell the oil on international markets and we (the US tax payer) will get the bill for cleanup when they spill. That oil will do nothing for our "oil independence" or gas prices.
@David
BP also told the US that they had contingency plans in place and could handle any spill that might occur. We all know how well that all worked out.
I'm sorry, I have zero trust in those people. Every time we trust them we get screwed.
Dennis,
It shouldn't be about trust--there should be such sever penalties for a bad spill that they can't even contemplate taking big chances. BP went about half way to bankruptcy, wouldn't have hurt my feelings much if they had been liquidated for their reckless practices.
Other countries are drilling for oil all over the world, its plain crazy we do not use our own , we all need gas to drive our auto s.
For all of you folks who think Sheel should be shut down, along with all the other oil companies, i want to ask a simple question. Why did you support Obama saving the car companies? If you don't want to continue to drill for oil, and reduce greenhouse gases, and lower pollution then why save a car company? If teh environment is just a few years away from going over a line that is not possible to return to, wouldn't it have been smarter to let the car companies go under? Allowing GM and Chrysler to fold would have been a perfect scenario to stop the pollution and need for oil, of course a large tariff to prevent imports would have been needed also, but it would have been a good start. It seems very hypocritical to me to want no oil drilling, no pollution etc.. and then turn around and demand that a car company be 'saved' from bankruptcy. Just a thought for some of you to sleep on this evening. Maybe a few of you will wake up and realize how much you are being played.
Perfect. well played!
When Romney becomes president and the Tea Party is in control, Energy Secretary Bachmann will have gas prices at $1.55 a gallon. Food prices will drop. Coal will be good to use again; Electricity will be 50% cheaper. Regulation will be repealed by EPA Secretary Sarah Palin and Secretary of the Treasury Ron Paul will rein in spending and the FED so the economy will boom. Meanwhile, VP Ryan will cut $1 Trillion a year from the budget effectively ending Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment, SSI The Dept of ED, HUD and drastic cuts in Transportation. This effectively saves Social Security, Medicare and the Military, the programs we have paid all our lives for and makes lazy welfare cheats get jobs or die and illegals leave for Mexico. Happy ending for all true Americans. Great country or what?
Paul you really need to stop sniffing those bath salts. They starting to rot your little, itty, bitty mind. Everything you laid out will never happen Paul. It might be your personal bath salt induced wet dream but it will never happen. The American people will never let any of that happen. We happen to love our country too much. Those are your true Americans. People like you will be kicked to the curb on November 7th no matter what happens. You will no longer be of use to anybody, least of all the likes of Mittens.
Um, Dennis, I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. Look it up.
OOPS
Paul, I think I might owe you an apology. It did sound like a tea party wet dream though. I've been subjected to such drivel lately that I'm constantly feeling like I need to be in the attack mode. I do apologize.
Olivia, thank you for kicking me out of the mode I was in.
it is ironic that Obama supports such insensitivity to our environment. I can't believe that he is agreeing to the oil companies raping our planet. Horrors LOL
Offshore drilling affords my husband and me the ability to pay the bills, live in a nice, quiet neighborhood and rely on ourselves. We are able to live independent, happy and comfortable lives because of my husband's job and my job.
I work in the medical field, so I don't have to worry about my job. But the eco nutjobs want to ensure that my husband, whose main employer is Schlumberger at this time, don't have sound footing. Because if they had their way, offshore drilling would go the way of the dinosaurs as would drilling on land. Don't want to hurt the cattle.
They don't care about my husband's livelihood nor those of his coworkers. Only their rich, hypocritical butts. Slag off greenies.
Yeah, Who cares if the mid-west is in the worst drought it has seen since the 30s. Tornadoes in New York in September, and who cares about the melting sea ice. Screw all those people who live on the coasts. As long as you are OK, that is all that matters. And if they don't like the heat in the south, they can move up north, after-all, the weather is the same now in North Dakota as it used to be in Nebraska.
Drill Baby Drill!!!
Ronald R. had the solar panels ripped off the roof of the White House. He said "we don't need no stinking solar panels, we can buy all the oil we need from the middle east". And, of course, this has worked out so well for the US.
Didn't know you two were so tight.
Big Oil's money has a proven track record of trumping environmental concerns, even in the face of epic disasters like Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon. If these were not serious enough to change the status quo, what could possibly suffice? Dead oiled birds have no voice, but even if they did, Repugnican lobbying and kickbacks would ensure that no one listens.
OJ claims he was innocent, blames Bush because Obama does!
What a nightmare.
Barack says we need renewables and bemoans climate change....and allows this.
Insanity.
Compromise is insanity? Sigh.