BPing the Arctic: How Shell's Dangerous Drilling Is Being Fast Tracked

Polar Bear on Bernard Harbor, Beaufort Sea coast of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Photo by Subhankar Banerjee, 2001

One of the riskiest and most destructive extreme energy oil exploration projects on the planet is moving toward implementation without scientific understanding or technical preparedness — Shell’s oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean of Alaska.

On August 4, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) conditionally approved Shell’s plan to drill up to four exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea of Arctic Alaska starting July 2012. A Los Angeles Times editorial correctly opined, “Shell Oil’s conditional permit to drill exploratory wells off Alaska should not have been granted. The hazards of drilling in such waters are in some ways worse than operating thousands of feet underwater. ... It’s too early for any approval, conditional or otherwise.” Shell still needs several more permits including an air quality permit from the Environmental Protection Agency before they can do any drilling in the Arctic seabed. We must stop it.

Soon I’ll tell you how BOEMRE is ignoring science to fast track Shell’s dangerous drilling plan, but first here is a brief history of how we got here.

During the Bush administration Shell bought leases in both the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas — Lease Sales 195 and 202 in the Beaufort Sea in 2005 and 2007 respectively; and Lease Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea in 2008. Then, in 2009 the Mineral Management Service (MMS), which is now BOEMRE, approved Shell’s plan to drill five exploratory wells — two in the Beaufort Sea and three in the Chukchi Sea. Following year on March 31 President Obama announced his new energy proposal that included opening up vast areas of America’s coastlines, including Beaufort and Chukchi Seas to oil and gas development. Three weeks later BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and spewed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil and an enormous amount of methane.

On May 25, 2010 I wrote an essay titled, “BPing the Arctic? Will the Obama Administration Allow Shell Oil to Do to Arctic Waters What BP Did to the Gulf?” that was distributed widely and was translated in French and German. Two days later President Obama suspended Shell’s 2010 drilling plan. The great irony was that it was BP’s catastrophe that saved the Arctic Ocean, that time. Unsurprisingly Shell went on offensive by launching massive ad campaign and kept on pressuring the administration. On August 26 I founded ClimateStoryTellers.org. We presented stories after stories through the end of the year on Shell’s Arctic drilling and their ad campaign. You can read all those stories here.

In response to a lawsuit brought by Inupiat and environmental organizations, on December 30 the Environmental Appeals Board of the EPA revoked Shell’s major source air quality permit. Subsequently Shell abandoned their 2011 drilling plan.

United States Is Becoming The Town of Punxsutawney

On May 4, 2011 Shell submitted their revised Beaufort Sea Exploration Plan (EP) with BOEMRE — two exploratory wells in 2012 and two in 2013. Then on May 12 they submitted their Chukchi Sea plan — three exploratory wells in 2012 and three in 2013. They’ve upped the ante; instead of the five wells that they had asked for in the past, now they’re asking for ten. On July 5 BOEMRE deemed Shell’s Beaufort application submitted and on August 4 conditionally approved it.

The BOEMRE press release about the permit begins with the announcement that Shell’s Beaufort exploratory wells would be in “shallow water.” This is a key argument you’ll hear from Shell and BOEMRE and it goes like this: BP’s Deepwater Horizonwas operating at a depth of 5,000 feet while Shell’s Arctic wells would operate in shallow water with depth of about 120 feet. The pressure is lower at shallower depth, sure, but don’t buy this argument. I’ll explain below and as Los Angeles Times correctly opined: drilling in the harsh ice covered environment of the Arctic Ocean is worse than drilling in the subtropical Gulf of Mexico.