Salazar says Interior to assess Shell’s 2012 operations in Arctic

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced that the Department of the Interior is going to conduct an expedited, high-level assessment of Shell’s operations in the Arctic in 2012. The review, which should be completed within 60 days, will focus on the challenges that Shell encountered with its containment barge, the Arctic Challenger; the deployment of the company’s new containment dome; and operational issues with the two drilling rigs, the Noble Discoverer and the Kulluk, Interior said in a Jan. 8 press release accompanying Salazar’s announcement. The review will examine Shell’s safety management systems, the company’s oversight of its contracted services and the company’s ability to meet the strict standards in place for Arctic development, Interior said.

Tommy Beaudreau, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, will lead the review, with U.S. Coast Guard providing technical assistance.

“Developing America’s domestic energy sources is essential for reducing our dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home and the administration is fully committed to exploring for potential energy resources in frontier areas such as the Arctic,” Salazar said. “Exploration allows us to better comprehend the true scope of our resources in the Arctic and to more fully understand the nature of the risks and benefits of development in this region, but we also recognize that the unique challenges posed by the Arctic environment demand an even higher level of scrutiny.”

Safety No. 1 priority

James Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said that his agency makes safety its number one priority and expects the highest level of performance from operators in the Arctic.

“As we oversee historic domestic drilling, BSEE will continue its unprecedented oversight of drilling activities in the Arctic and we will continue to hold anyone operating in public waters to the highest safety and environmental standards,” Watson said.

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior has put in place a series of new measures which the agency says will protect the environment and workers on offshore drilling rigs. New safety measures include heightened drilling safety standards to reduce the risk of a loss of well control, and a new focus on oil containment capabilities in the event of an oil spill, Interior said.

—Alan Bailey

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