US lets Shell prepare for Chukchi drilling

摘要

Washington—In late June, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar considered it “highly likely” his agency would give Shell permission to drill multiple exploratory wells in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas this year. But as summer slips away without Shell yet checking off all requirements, Salazar now wonders whether the company will drill a single well envisioned in its high-profile Arctic program. Shell inched toward clinching that permission August 30 with a narrow approval by regulators to start preparatory work for a Chukchi well. The company can drill “top holes” into non-oil-bearing zones, build a mudline cellar to encase the blowout preventer below the seafloor, and drill and set the first two strings of casing. But it cannot start exploring in earnest.