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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
September 2007

Vol. 12, No. 36 Week of September 09, 2007

Shell requests reconsideration by court

Shell has requested the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to reconsider its Aug. 15 temporary ban on Shell’s Beaufort Sea drilling activities. The court ban related to appeals by the North Slope Borough, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and several environmental organizations against U.S. Minerals Management Service approval of Shell’s Beaufort Sea exploration plan.

Shell has been assembling a fleet of vessels, including the drillships Kulluk and Frontier Discoverer, to drill three wells in its Sivulliq prospect on the western side of Camden Bay during the 2007 open water season. But the petitioners in the appeals have objected to the Shell plans on the grounds of potential disruption to subsistence hunting and possible environmental impacts resulting from the drilling.

In the Aug. 15 order a panel of three 9th Circuit Court judges told Shell to suspend its operations until the appeals are settled — under the latest court schedule, the appeal cases will not end until at least December, so that the suspension nixes any possibility of Shell starting its drilling program in 2007.

Unjustified, Shell says

But Shell says that the suspension of its drilling activities is unjustified.

“Reconsideration of the Panel’s Aug. 15, 2007, Order is warranted because there are significant points of law and/or fact that the Panel overlooked or misunderstood,” lawyers for Shell said in an Aug. 17 motion to the court.

The points of law or fact that the Shell lawyers raise include questions regarding the court’s assessment of the petitioners’ likelihood of success in the case; the need to consider the substantial financial harm caused to Shell by the suspension; the commitments that Shell has made to prevent disruption of the fall 2007 Beaufort Sea whale hunt; and the need to consider Shell’s oil discharge prevention and contingency plan.

The lawyers also cited several precedents set in previous similar legal cases.

On Aug. 24 the petitioners in the appeal filed a motion refuting Shell’s request for reconsideration.

“Shell has not identified any law, fact or changed circumstance that justifies reconsideration,” the petitioners said in paperwork filed with the court.

It is not clear when the court will rule on Shell’s petition.

—Alan Bailey

The Anchorage Daily News contributed to this story






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