By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 27 (Reuters) – A fourth government
probe is under way into Royal Dutch Shell’s
mishap-prone 2012 Alaska drilling season, this time for possible
violations of international marine environmental rules, a U.S.
Coast Guard official said on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard has asked federal prosecutors to consider
taking action on possible violations of the International
Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL)
committed in the operations of Shell’s Kulluk drillship, said
Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, head of the Coast Guard in Alaska.
Shell, which had planned to drill up to five wells offshore
Alaska in 2012 and a similar number this year, has previously
said it will pause its Alaska operations to regroup due to
complications faced in the harsh northern environment, but it
expects to resume drilling next year.
Ostebo said he had commissioned one investigation already
launched into the Dec. 31 grounding of the Kulluk and that the
Coast Guard has forwarded findings of safety and environmental
violations on the Noble Discoverer, Shell’s other Alaska
drillship, to U.S. prosecutors for possible enforcement action.
“Last week, I also referred a separate Kulluk investigation
into potential MARPOL violations from 2012 to the Department of
Justice for their review and potential follow-on action,” Ostebo
said at a field hearing convened by Senator Mark Begich.
Ostebo declined to comment further, with the review pending.
Shell’s 2012 drill season had earlier been the subject of a
60-day review by the U.S. Department of Interior that concluded
Shell was ill-prepared for Alaska’s marine rigors, had not
adequately overseen contractors and had committed other lapses.
Pete Slaiby, Shell’s vice president for Alaska operations,
declined at the hearing to speak about the investigations. He
did note that drilling operations – the first in open waters in
Alaska’s Arctic in 15 years – were completed safely.
Shell had been planning last year to drill up to two wells
in the Beaufort Sea, off northern Alaska, and up to three wells
in the more remote Chukchi Sea, off northwestern Alaska.
But with equipment failures, permitting problems and sea-ice
complications, Shell was only able to drill the top portions of
one well in the Chukchi and one well in the Beaufort during the
fall open-water season. It then moved its drillships and support
vessels out of the Arctic.
The Kulluk, after escaping tow lines crossing the stormy
Gulf of Alaska, grounded south of Kodiak Island on Dec. 31. A
week later, it was refloated and towed to a nearby bay.
The ship on Wednesday began its voyage to a Singapore
shipyard for repairs, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.
With two rigs out of service, Shell last month said it will
pause its Alaska drilling operations in 2013.
It still expects to resume drilling in 2014, and may be
joined in the Chukchi Sea by ConocoPhillips, which holds
extensive leases in the basin.
Tommy Beaudreau, deputy Interior secretary and director of
the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said ConocoPhillips could
face different rules than those imposed on Shell.
Conoco plans to drill from a jackup rig rather than a
floating drillship, so safety issues might be different from
those with Shell, though regulators plan to be just as strict
about the potential for loss of well control, Beaudreau said.
Control at the source is critical in the Arctic because of
geographic remoteness, isolation, and sea ice, he said.
“We don’t prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution to this
issue. But we will be very demanding on this issue,” said
Beaudreau, who testified by teleconference.
Regulators required Shell to have a special barge with an
oil-containment dome to respond to any blowouts. Shell was
unable to get the dome and barge working right for 2012, so it
was not allowed to drill into hydrocarbon-bearing zones.
