Plan to drill offshore Alabama withdrawn

A Colorado-based oil company has shelved plans to drill an exploratory gas well among the seagrass beds in Grand Bay offshore Alabama.

Duncan Oil Inc.’s drilling application called for moving barges and supply boats through an area federal scientists call “one of the most biologically productive” estuaries on the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi side of the bay is protected as part of the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, but the Alabama side does not have those federal protections. Duncan’s application was withdrawn after the company’s environmental consultant found seagrass beds growing throughout the proposed access route and within the working area around the proposed drilling rig, the Mobile Register reported in a story June 25.

—The Associated Press