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Starting to move Two Shell vessels depart north from Dutch for reduced drilling program By Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The Aiviq, Shell’s new ice-capable anchor handler, and the Fennica, the icebreaker carrying the company’s new well capping stack, have departed north from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands in preparation for the start of drilling in the Chukchi Sea, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith told Petroleum News Aug. 2. The icebreaker Tor Viking will also head north from Dutch Harbor within the next 24 to 36 hours, he said.
Following a request from local communities, the Aiviq and the Fennica will deploy buoys in the Bering Strait on their way north, to monitor the acoustic footprint of the rest of the Shell fleet, as the fleet transitions towards Shell’s Chukchi Sea leases, Smith said.
Scaled back program Because of a delayed start to its drilling program, Shell has now scaled back its drilling plans to two wells, one in the Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea and one in the Sivulliq prospect in the Beaufort Sea, Smith said. The company had hoped to drill up to three wells in the Chukchi Sea and up to two wells in the Beaufort Sea.
“We have recalibrated our expectations, based on the persistent ice and the construction issues that we’re having with the containment barge,” Smith said, referring to delays in the deployment from Seattle of the barge Arctic Challenger.
However, in addition to completing two wells this year, the company now plans to drill the top-hole sections of some other wells, in preparation for drilling next year.
Shell will view the reduced program as a success, given valuable subsurface data that it will glean from the completed wells and the way in which the top holes will put the company ahead for its 2013 drilling program, Smith said.
Delays continue Shell had originally planned to move its fleet north in early July, but exceptionally heavy ice in the Chukchi Sea caused the company to put the fleet on hold. The company has also been waiting for the completion of work in installing its new oil containment system in the Arctic Challenger in Seattle and subsequent U.S. Coast Guard certification of that vessel.
In an Aug. 1 email, Cmdr. Christopher O’Neil of the U.S. Coast Guard told Petroleum News that a stability test of the barge was planned to be carried out within the next few days and that the Coast Guard and the American Bureau of Shipping were continuing to “examine issues relating to structural fire protection, structural plans and calculations, mooring analysis, electrical load analysis and a number of machinery related issues.”
Shell hopes to be in a position to deploy the containment barge within the next couple of days, Smith said on Aug. 2. It will subsequently take 14 to 18 days to move the vessel up to the Arctic, he said.
The approval of Shell’s drilling permits by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is apparently contingent on deployment of the containment system carried on the Arctic Challenger.
Air permits And the company still needs an Environmental Protection Agency decision on a requested change to the air quality permit for the Noble Discoverer, the drilling vessel that Shell plans to use in the Chukchi.
The Environmental Protection Agency has declined to comment to Petroleum News on the status of its review of Shell’s permit change request. Shell has said that it is looking for a compliance order that will enable drilling to proceed in 2012, pending a full review of the amended permit. The company has also requested a change to the air permit for the Kulluk, the company’s other Arctic drilling vessel. However, under the terms of the Kulluk permit, a minor permit, Shell can use the vessel, with EPA having 90 days to respond to Shell’s change request.
The sea ice has been moving out of the area where Shell plans to drill. It seems that Shell’s recent prediction of a drilling start late in the first week of August or early in the second week was very close, Smith said.
Greenpeace on site Meanwhile, environmental activist organization Greenpeace says that scientists on board its vessel Esperanza are already conducting environmental research in the area of Shell’s planned Chukchi Sea drilling. In a July 30 press release Greenpeace said that researchers on a submarine launched from the vessel had videoed and sampled seafloor corals “at Shell’s proposed drill site in the Chukchi Sea.”
“Discovering abundant corals in the Arctic waters right where Shell plans to drill this summer shows just how little is known about this fragile and unique region. Melting sea ice is not an invitation for offshore drilling in the Arctic, it’s a warning that this pristine environment should be protected and dedicated to science,” said John Hocevar, marine biologist and oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA.
Presumably referring to the environmental impact statement for the 2008 Chukchi Sea lease sale, Greenpeace says that the “environmental impact statement for Shell’s Chukchi drilling program” does not mention the corals.
Shell and other oil companies with Chukchi Sea leases have been conducting a multiyear environmental research program in the region. According to an article in the Washington Post, Michael Macrander, Shell Alaska science team lead, said that the seafloor corals are patchily distributed in some areas, that Greenpeace may have encountered a higher concentration than normal and that a drilling operation would only have a brief and temporary impact on the corals.
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