Cries of Betrayal, Calls to Organize as Obama Approves Arctic Drilling

[Divernan]

6. Shell restricted from drilling into any oil-bearing rock layers - for now

The restriction remains in place until the damaged ice breaker, Fennica, reaches Oregon, is repaired, and returns to the Arctic drilling sites. The Fennica carries the capping stack - an absolutely critical and required safety device in the event of a break at the ocean bottom, as happened with BP in the Gulf. Without this equipment ready to be deployed, Shell cannot drill.

So why, you may ask, did the Fennica suffer a gash in its hull when it had left Dutch Harbor and was headed to the drilling site, forcing it to head to Oregon for repair, and delaying govt. approval to drill into oil-bearing rock layers? As reported 2 days ago by station KUCB in Unalaska, that's because the world's largest oil company, Shell relied on depth charts based on EIGHTY YEAR OLD surveys done w/sextants & hand-held lines! That's as opposed to modern, electronic surveys. Good grief! Hand-held lines and sextants! 80 years ago! What could possibly go wrong?

http://kucb.org/news/article/asdf/

Shell’s Damaged Icebreaker Fennica Heads to Oregon for Repairs
By John Ryan
Monday, July 20 2015

The Fennica was sailing between Hog Island and the Dutch Harbor airport on Amaknak Island. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration charts show that channel being shallower than the waters around the other side of Hog Island, where Shell kept its oil rigs while they were in Dutch Harbor.

The channel the Fennica sailed, under guidance of a harbor pilot, was even shallower than the area’s 80-year-old charts showed.

My source in Unalaska pointed out to me that Shell is required to cease operations between September 24 & 29, because that's when the really rough weather starts. One only wonders what other SHELL fubars await between now and then.

Charts still in use in the Aleutians and Arctic Alaska are based on surveys conducted in 1935 with sextants and hand-held lines to plumb the depths.

After the incident, the NOAA ship Fairweather, already in the area on a mission to better map Arctic shipping routes, did a modern, electronic survey and found rocky areas less than 30 feet deep, including one just 22.5 feet deep. The Fennica sits 27.5 feet deep in the water.

Turning to today's news, here are excerpts from an article by the same reporter in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor/station KUCB

http://kucb.org/news/article/interior-dept-oks-arctic-drillingwith-limits/
Interior Dept. OKs Arctic Drilling—With Limits
By John Ryan
Wednesday, July 22 2015

(The damaged Fennica icebreaker, shortly before leaving Dutch Harbor for Oregon. KUCB/John Ryan photo.)

The Obama administration approved Shell’s Oil’s plan for drilling in the Arctic Ocean Wednesday. But for now at least, Shell is restricted on how deep it can drill. With a key piece of Shell’s oil-spill equipment currently heading away from the Arctic, the Interior Department told the company it cannot drill into any oil-bearing rock layers.

Shell’s “capping stack” is on board an icebreaker, the Fennica, that apparently hit an uncharted rock and tore a three-foot hole in its hull in Dutch Harbor on July 3. The Fennica is now about halfway through its weeklong journey from Dutch Harbor, 1000 miles south of the drilling site, to a shipyard in Portland, Oregon, for repairs.

“Fennica’s going the opposite direction,” Brian Salerno, head of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said. “Until such time as the Fennica makes hull repairs and then is able to return to Arctic with the capping stack, the restriction will remain in place.”

The federal permits also prevent Shell from drilling its two planned wells, which are about 9 miles away from each other some 70 miles off the northwest Alaskan coast, at once. That rule aims to protect walruses in the area from drilling noise.