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Vol. 17, No. 47 Week of November 18, 2012
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

Shell’s drilling fleet departs the Arctic as drilling season ends

Following the cessation of drilling operations at the end of October, Shell’s Alaska drilling fleet is heading south out of the Arctic, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith told Petroleum News in a Nov. 13 email. The drillship Noble Discover, which had been drilling at the Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea, will dock initially in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, from where it will likely sail to a West Coast shipyard for routine maintenance, Smith said. The Kulluk, the floating drilling platform that Shell was using at its Sivulliq prospect in the Beaufort Sea, is heading for Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands — it is possible that Shell may later also move the Kulluk to the West Coast for maintenance work.

“The Kulluk and its support fleet are well past Point Barrow and sailing to Dutch Harbor at roughly four knots,” Smith said.

Shell had delayed the refueling of the Kulluk and its support vessels, and hence their departure from the Sivulliq site, because of rough seas, but the refueling was completed during the week ending Nov. 10, Smith explained, adding that at no time did sea ice threaten any harm to the Beaufort Sea fleet. Shell also conducted a required crew rotation prior to the fleet’s departure for the south.

The Kulluk is designed to withstand sea ice and had been moored in the Canadian Arctic for an extended period of time before Shell acquired it several years ago.

There have been media reports that Shell plans to replace the cranes on the Kulluk before next year’s drilling season, but Smith said that Shell has not yet decided on that possibility.

“We essentially de-rated the capability of our cranes in colder temperatures so that no one attempted lifting operations that could have proven unsafe,” Smith said. “It’s common for equipment to operate less efficiently in cold temperatures and that’s something we will consider as we ready the rigs for 2013.”

Shell ended up drilling the top hole sections — the top 1,400 to 1,500 feet — of one well in the Burger prospect and one well in the Sivulliq prospect during this year’s open water season. The company anticipates returning to the Arctic in the summer of 2013 to continue its drilling program, presumably drilling to potential hydrocarbon bearing zones in those two wells that have already been started.

—Alan Bailey



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