Beaufort plan comment period extended

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has for the second time extended the deadline for public comments on the Alaska Coastal Management Program consistency review of Shell’s 2010 Beaufort Sea exploration plan. Having already changed the original comment deadline from Sept. 30 to Oct. 14, the department has now moved the deadline to Nov. 9. DNR now says that it plans to issue the final ACMP consistency determination by Dec. 1.

The deadline for comments on Shell’s Beaufort Sea Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan has also been extended to Nov. 9.

According to a letter to Shell from Alaska’s Division of Coastal and Ocean Management, DNR has delayed the deadline as a consequence of stopping the ACMP review between Oct. 9 and Nov. 4, while Shell responded to a request from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for additional information.

Shell plans to use the drillship Frontier Discoverer to drill one well in its Beaufort Sea Torpedo prospect and one well in its Sivulliq prospect during the 2010 summer drilling season. Both prospects are on the outer continental shelf, on the west side of Camden Bay, north of the eastern end of the North Slope.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service approved Shell’s plan on Oct. 19. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still processing the company’s air quality permit application for the 2010 Beaufort Sea drilling program. Shell has said that it needs to make a go-or-no-go decision for the drilling by early 2010.

—Alan Bailey