Unalaska, AK – Shell Oil received news on two different drilling plans this week. On Monday, the Minerals Management Service gave Shell conditional approval for their exploration plans for Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea. Today they declared Shell's application to drill exploration wells in the Chukchi Sea to be complete but they have 30 days to review them before deciding if they are approved.

Shell Alaska External Affairs representative Curtis Smith said it's unclear if Unalaska will play a role in the staging operations for drilling in the Beaufort Sea. However, if the application goes through, Unalaska would play a role in the Chukchi drilling.

"In the best case scenario, we envision Dutch Harbor as key to pre-season load out, in-season re-supply, and post-season unloading of supplies for Chukchi operations and likely other operations as well," Smith said.

He said that if the drilling happens then the drill rig and its support vessels would also use facilities in Unalaska. It would be similar to the operations in 2007.

However, it is not clear that Shell will be drilling in either sea next year. They still need 36 more permits to explore the Beaufort leases and the MMS has not even approved the plans for the Chukchi leases.

"It's important to keep in mind we still have some lack of clarity when it comes to our Chukchi leases," Smith said. "A district court in Washington, D.C. is still waiting to hear back from the Department of the Interior on some information it requested. Frankly, an environmental analysis."

Shell's lease purchases were challenged in federal court because groups say the environmental analyses done on the regions were incomplete.

Smith said Shell needs to set their plans by very early 2010 at the latest. At this point, actual drilling may or may not occur.