|
Enviros challenge Shell’s plan
Shell’s plans for Chukchi Sea exploration have met with another challenge. As the company moves its fleet north in preparation to start drilling two wells during this summer’s Arctic open water season, Earthjustice on behalf of 10 environmental organizations has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell saying that the planned spacing of Shell’s drilling operations in the Chukchi Sea violates a drill-rig separation requirement in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regulations for authorizing the incidental disturbance of marine wildlife. In the June 23 letter Earthjustice asks that the Department of the Interior rescinds Shell’s Chukchi Sea exploration plan and that the agency not issue permits for Shell’s proposed exploration wells, moves that would nix Shell’s drilling program.
“We ask you to take immediate action to address this basic deficiency in Shell’s drilling plan and permit applications, protect the Pacific walrus, and ensure agency decisions resulting from the review of Shell’s drilling proposal are defensible and lawful,” the letter says.
“We continue to consult with regulators on the terms of a letter of authorization,” Shell Alaska spokeswoman Megan Baldino told Petroleum News in a June 24 email. “All of our permit applications are based on sound science.”
Regulations The regulations under question relate to the issue by Fish and Wildlife of letters of authorization for the unintended, minor disturbance of walrus and polar bears. The agency has yet to issue this authorization for Shell - without the authorization Shell would risk infringing the Marine Mammal Protection Act were it to disturb any of the animals. The National Marine Fisheries Service has already issued a similar authorization for the disturbance of a number of marine mammals, including seals and whales.
New regulations for letters of authorization issued by Fish and Wildlife in June 2013 state, among other things, that “to avoid significant synergistic or cumulative effects from multiple oil and gas exploration activities on foraging or migrating walruses, operators must maintain a minimum spacing of 24 km (15 mi) between all active seismic source vessels and/or drilling rigs during exploration activities.”
Shell’s planned Chukchi Sea wells all appear to be less than 15 miles apart. The company plans to operate two drilling rigs for its exploration drilling operations.
- Alan Bailey
| 