Shell to Press Ahead With Arctic Sea Drilling

[tekisui]

Source: Oil Marketer

Oil giant Shell is to press ahead with plans to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic’s environmentally sensitive frozen waters, despite calls for a moratorium on offshore exploration.

The company is awaiting final permits, which has cost it in the region of $2 billion (£1.38 billion), after it was forced to review its safety procedures following the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

However, environmentalists said drilling in the Arctic brings with it the risk of large oil spills and the icy conditions of the Arctic Ocean means there would be no way to effectively clean up spilled oil.

According to Pamela Miller, Alaska programme director for the Northern Alaska Environmental Centre: “Chronic spills are a fact of life from oil and gas operations on Alaska’s North Slope, where over 6,000 spills have occurred since 1996, and more than 400 of these took place at offshore oil fields.”

more: http://www.oilmarketer.co.uk/2010/05/19/shell-to-press-ahead-with-arctic-sea-drilling/