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Shell plans single rig & expanded shore base for Chukchi drilling
In a revised Chukchi Sea exploration plan, published on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s website, Shell says that it anticipates using a single drillship, the Noble Discoverer, for exploration drilling at the Burger prospect, potentially starting in the summer of 2014. The company has contracted a second rig, Transocean’s Polar Pioneer semi-submersible drilling rig, to replace Shell’s damaged Kulluk floating drilling platform. But, according to Shell’s revised plan, the company intends to station the Polar Pioneer at Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands as a backup rig for the drilling of a relief well, should a well blowout incapacitate the Noble Discoverer.
If necessary, the Polar Pioneer could transition to Burger, moor at the prospect, drill a relief well and kill the flow of oil from an out-of-control well in 38 days, Shell says in its plan.
Containment dome Also as part of its oil spill prevention and response contingency arrangements, Shell plans to deploy its new Arctic oil containment dome, designed to capture oil from an out-of-control well. Delays in completion of the construction of this new device and subsequent problems with testing it were the prime reasons that Shell was unable to complete any wells into hydrocarbon bearing zones in 2012. But the company now says that the equipment has been successfully tested for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Shell plans to station the device in Kotzebue Sound on the Chukchi Sea coast during the drilling season.
Other changes made to the version of Shell’s plan that was used for the company’s Alaska Arctic drilling program in 2012 include an expansion of the company’s shore base in Barrow from a 75-person camp to a 200-person camp, with kitchen facilities and a hangar for an additional helicopter. The company also wants to add six vessels to its drilling support fleet, including an additional resupply vessel; a vessel for the gathering of scientific data and the monitoring of drilling discharges; and a tug and barge combination for nearshore oil spill response.
BOEM review The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, is currently reviewing Shell’s revised plan for completeness, an exercise that the agency anticipates completing by Nov. 29. Once the agency has a version of the plan that it deems complete it will release the plan for public comments.
In the summer of 2012 Shell drilled the top-hole section of the Burger A well. In its revised plan the company says that it anticipates re-entering and completing that well as the next step in the drilling of up to six Burger wells over several summer drilling seasons. Burger consists of a 35-mile diameter geologic structure about 80 miles offshore the western end of the North Slope. The structure is known to contain a major natural gas resource and Shell thinks that the structure also contains oil.
But Shell faces a daunting permitting exercise if it is to deploy its substantial drilling fleet in time for drilling during the 2014 Arctic open water season. In addition, the company faces some permitting uncertainty, given the fact that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is preparing new safety rules for oil drilling on the Arctic outer continental shelf. The agency had been planning to release its new rules in December for public comment but in a Nov. 21 email BOEM spokesman John Callahan told Petroleum News that because of the recent government shutdown the proposed rules would not now be published until sometime in the first quarter of 2014.
Air emissions However, because BOEM has taken over Arctic outer continental shelf air permitting from the Environmental Protection Agency Shell will not require an EPA air permit for its future Chukchi Sea drilling. Instead, BOEM will evaluate air emissions data as part of its approval process for Shell’s exploration plan. By law, once the agency determines that the plan is complete the agency has 30 days to inform Shell of any required plan modifications, or to approve or disapprove the plan, including the anticipated air emissions from the drilling operations, Callahan told Petroleum News.
In the past the need for EPA air permits was a prime factor in lengthy delays to the start of Shell’s Arctic offshore drilling — in addition to the permits taking a long time to prepare and approve, the permits became subject to a series of appeals and lawsuits challenging permit approval.
—Alan Bailey
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