Broken Containment System Derails Shell's Drilling Plans
Monday, September 17 2012
Shell won’t be striking oil in the Arctic this summer. The company disclosed today that its oil spill containment bell, a critical piece of response equipment, is damaged and won’t be operational before the end of the drilling season. Without the containment system, Shell can’t drill into the oil-bearing layers beneath the Arctic seafloor. The company will continue to drill “top holes” – the first 1400 feet of the well – which they can return to next year.
Before they can proceed with top hole drilling though, a large ice floe needs to clear the Chukchi Sea drill site. Shell only managed to drill for a few hours last week before having to disconnect from the well as a 12 by 30 mile chunk of ice bore down on the Noble Discoverer drill rig. Shell’s Beaufort Sea rig is still awaiting the end of the fall bowhead whale hunt.
GUILLOT on Sunday, September 23 2012:
Shirly? Really? Your the kind of negative people that have us in a knot today. This country needs this to work to help us get somewhere on the way of getting back on track. We don't want to become dependant on foreign oil, we need them buying from us. And if you notice USA don't have much of anything else to help us get up other than this exact subject that's been our rock all along. Any one can say it can't be done how bout some support and positivity...... Whurk NOBLE Yall got that
Shirley on Thursday, September 20 2012:
These are the people to whom we should trust one of the world's most sensitive ecosystems? Sure, they'll eventually get it all working, and tell us it's now safe -- until it doesn't and it isn't, at which time they will apologize profusely, try to dump as much of the cleanup cost as possible on us, jack prices up because of the resulting "shortage," and make a series of slick lying commercials about how your seafood now tastes even better since the cleanup.