Obama defends Shell’s Chukchi drilling permits

OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2015. President Barack Obama is defending the decision to allow Shell to drill for oil in the Chukchi sea off the northern Alaska coast, insisting his administration does not "rubber-stamp permits."

As he prepared to appear before an international conference on arctic issues today in Anchorage, Alaska, Obama used his 29 August weekly address to try to reassure voters concerned about oil and gas drilling in environmentally sensitive waters.

"I share people's concerns about offshore drilling," Obama said. "I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well."

Shell has returned to the US arctic for the first time since a mishap-plagued attempt in 2012. The Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) on 17 August granted Shell permission to drill in oil-bearing zones at its Burger J site in the Chukchi. The company will have until 28 September to drill the well, located in about 140 feet of water about 70 miles northwest of a small city of Wainwright, Alaska.

Obama, while noting that Shell was using leases purchased before he took office, said the administration "has worked to make sure that our oil exploration conducted under these leases is done at the highest standards possible." The requirements imposed on Shell have been tailored to the risks of drilling off Alaska, Obama said.

"It is a testament to how rigorous we have applied those standards that Shell has delayed and limited its exploration off Alaska while trying to meet them."

BSEE initially had barred Shell from drilling in hydrocarbon-bearing zones after the icebreaker MV Fennica, which is carrying the capping stack that would be used to contain oil in the event of a blowout, was damaged last month.

The Fennica was forced to return to Portland, Oregon, for repairs. BSEE then authorized Shell to drill for oil once the vessel had been repaired and reached the Burger drill site. But Shell pulled back from an initial goal to complete two wells this year after US regulators rejected its plan to simultaneously drill the wells.

Obama made clear his goal is to help move the US toward greater use of renewable energy resources. "Even as we accelerate this transition, our economy still has to rely on oil and gas. As long as that is the case, I believe we should rely more on domestic production than on foreign imports."

Shell declined to comment on Obama's address. But the company has said it looks forward to "evaluating what could potentially become a national energy resource base."

Obama this evening will address the Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER). The US has invited representatives from 19 countries and the EU to attend.