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BOEMRE wants public input on Shell’s plan for exploration drilling in the Camden Bay area in the open water season of 2012

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

On July 5 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement announced the start of a public review period for Shell’s plans for exploration drilling in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea during the 2012 open water season, and for Shell’s accompanying oil spill prevention and contingency plan. Comments on the plans are due by July 25.

BOEMRE is also preparing an environmental assessment for Shell’s plan, with public comments on the scope of that assessment due by July 15.

In May Shell submitted new explorations plans for both the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea, envisaging the drilling of up to four wells in the Beaufort Sea and up to three wells in the Chukchi Sea, starting in 2012. BOEMRE has determined that Shell’s proposed Beaufort Sea plan is complete, an essential prerequisite of the plan review and approval process.

However, the agency has not yet taken any official action on the Chukchi Sea plan because of an unresolved appeal against the 2008 lease sale in which Shell obtained its Chukchi Sea leases. In the appeal case the U.S. District Court in Alaska ordered BOEMRE to revise the original EIS for the lease sale in response to an appeal against the sale by the Native Village of Point Hope, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and 12 environmental organizations. Meantime the court has banned Chukchi Sea lease related activities.

In May BOEMRE released for public review a new supplemental environmental impact statement for the lease sale. That SEIS addressed the challenges upheld by the court against the original EIS. BOEMRE also voluntarily included in the SEIS a new assessment of the potential impacts of what it characterized as a “very large oil spill” in the Chukchi Sea. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline has set a deadline of Oct. 3 for completion of the SEIS — the public comment period for the document ended on July 11, but BOEMRE is also holding public hearings in Alaska.

Shell also still faces the hurdle of obtaining Environmental Protection Agency air quality permits for its planned Beaufort and Chukchi seas operations. Following an appeal to the Environmental Appeals Board over the original versions of these permits, on July 1 EPA issued new draft permits, with public comments on the permits due by Aug. 5. The permits under review apply to Shell’s use of the drillship Frontier Discoverer — Shell has yet to apply for air quality permits for its other drilling vessel, the Kulluk. The company has recently dispatched the Kulluk to Seattle for power plant and generator upgrades to reduce air emissions.

During a briefing with Sen. Lisa Murkowski on July 8, Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby said that Shell is targeting October for obtaining the permits it needs for drilling in 2012, to avoid the expense and disruption of organizing and subsequently cancelling its drilling operations.

“We’ve had a number of false starts and they’re hugely costly and they’re emotionally damaging to a lot of people,” Slaiby said.