Feds ask Shell for assurances on Arctic drilling

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Feds-ask-Shell-for-assurances-on-Arctic-drilling-5157943.php

Feds ask Shell for assurances on Arctic drilling
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Washington Bureau : January 19, 2014

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators scrutinizing Shell's bid to resume Arctic drilling next summer are pressing the company for more evidence it has fixed the problems that plagued its last search for black gold in the region.

In November, Houston-based Shell Oil Co. formally asked the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for permission to finish drilling one exploratory well and bore four others at its Burger prospect in Alaska's Chukchi Sea.

Regulators at the agency swiftly asked Shell to provide more information to supplement its broad drilling blueprint, including information about how quickly it could mobilize a backup rig to drill a relief well in case of a blowout and what steps the company would take to limit risks to nearby wildlife. After Shell responded, regulators asked for more details in a document the government released Thursday.

The ocean energy bureau asked Shell to shed more light on changes under way to its leased drillship, the Noble Discoverer, which is being overhauled in an Asian shipyard. The Coast Guard identified deficiencies with the safety, pollution-control and propulsion systems on the Discoverer in late 2012, after the drillship had trouble pulling into Seward, Alaska.

[DetlefK]

1. Just a slap a tiny paragraph to the contract and it's fine.

In any case of environmental pollution connected to crude oil from that lease, Shell will pay for any and all cleanup costs and will be liable for any and all public and private damages resulting from said pollution.