In 2012, Shell’s attempt to drill in the Chukchi Sea in the Alaska’s Arctic proved to be an expensive and dangerous farce, featuring groundings, equipment failures, explosions and citations for safety violations. Returning two years later with an flotilla of 29 ships, Shell’s fortunes have not improved. Rather than discovering oil, the 380-foot icebreaker and supply vessel Fennica discovered an unmarked shoal soon after leaving Dutch Harbor ripping a 39″ gash in her side. The icebreaker, one of two in the flotilla, is being sent to Portland for repairs.

The problem for Shell is that the Finnish-owned Fennica is carrying a capping stack, a vital piece of spill-prevention equipment designed to fit over a damaged well and prevent a blowout. Without the capping stack onsite, Shell may not be allowed to do any deep drilling.  As reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

When Shell sought to drill in 2012, its 20-foot spill-containment dome encountered major problems before going anywhere near Alaska. The dome was tested in 150 feet of water off Anacortes.  It became unhinged, shot to the surface and “breached like a whale” in words of an inspector’s report.  It then sank. When brought back to the surface, the top half of the dome was “crushed like a beer can,” the report added.

The U.S. Interior Department did allow Shell to start drilling, but not into deep zones that hold oil and natural gas. Shell may follow a similar path this year, not going deep until the Fennica is repaired and present in Arctic waters….

The Chukchi Sea is a major walrus habitat. Its ice flows are also home to an estimated 2,000 polar bears.

Starting with the $2.8 billion it bit on leases in 2008, Shell has now invested upwards of $7 billion on its Arctic exploration effort. The reward could be enormous, as the federal government estimates that Arctic waters could hold upwards of 26 billion barrels of oil.

Environmental groups have mounted furious resistance, from federal court suits against Shell to “kayakctivist” seaborne protests when the Polar Pioneer arrived and departed Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle.

They are mounting a twofold argument, that drilling is unsafe in waters of the Chukchi Sea — covered with ice for much of the year, and subject to storms off Siberia — and that climate change dictates that oil beneath the Chukchi Sea should stay there.

See our previous posts: Shell’s Alaska Drilling Rigs – Towlines, Taxes and Engine Failures & Shell Drilling Rig, Kulluk, Loaded with Fuel, Aground on Sitkalidak Island in Gulf of Alaska