NMFS issues IHAs for Shell OCS drilling

Shell crosses another hurdle towards its Alaska drilling program; Greenpeace tries to prevent departure of icebreaker from Finland

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has issued incidental harassment authorizations, or IHAs, for the drilling program that Shell plans to carry out in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort seas this year. The authorizations allow the minor disturbance of small numbers of whales and seals by Shell’s operations while also stipulating mitigation measures that Shell must take to reduce or eliminate impacts on these marine mammals and on subsistence hunting by Alaska natives.

“We’re issuing these authorizations to Shell after conducting extensive scientific review and considering public comments,” said Sam Rauch, acting assistant administrator of NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “Shell will be required to put in place a number of mitigation measures that reduce or eliminate direct impacts to these animals and any negative effects on the ability of Alaskan Natives to conduct subsistence hunts for marine mammals.”

Shell will also require similar authorizations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the accidental disturbance of polar bears and walrus. And, although the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has approved Shell’s Alaska exploration plans, the company has yet to obtain drilling permits from the Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement.

The IHAs issued by the Fisheries Service require Shell to use trained marine mammal observers; to reduce ship speeds when animals are spotted; to communicate with Native communities about exploration activities and vessel routes; and to suspend operations in certain areas at specific times to avoid disturbance to subsistence hunting.

“Shell has executed responsible offshore programs in Alaska for several years with no known negative impacts to the environment, marine mammals or local communities,” said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith on May 2 in response to the issuing of the IHAs. “We look forward to continued success on that front and to working with regulators to secure the remaining permits needed to work in the Alaska offshore.”

Meantime, activist organization Greenpeace has made a new attempt to disrupt the deployment of Shell’s Arctic Alaska drilling fleet. According to Finland’s Yle News on May 1 Finnish police detained 39 Greenpeace protestors who were trying to prevent the icebreaker Nordica from leaving Helsinki to join the Shell fleet.

Initially 15 protestors locked themselves in various parts of the vessel and, after removal of these protestors by police, other protestors surrounded the vessel using inflatable boats and canoes — the Nordica eventually left port at 10 p.m., Yle News said.

The federal District Court in Alaska has already issued a preliminary injunction banning Greenpeace from occupying any of a list of 19 vessels that Shell plans to use. The injunction applies when those vessels are in U.S. waters or ports and also bans Greenpeace from entering a safety zone around each vessel when the vessel is in motion.

Greenpeace has appealed the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, with briefs in the appeal due on May 24 and answering briefs due on June 21.

Shell plans to start its Arctic operations, starting in the Chukchi Sea, in July.