Shell’s semi-submersible drilling vessel Polar Pioneer is working at the Burger J location. Another drill vessel, the Noble Discoverer, a drillship, is moored at a second well location, Burger V, where Shell also hopes to drill this summer.
Shell may drill just one well at a time, although the second drillship can be kept nearby and ready to drill when the first vessel finishes a well. Federal rules prohibit simultaneous drilling by drill vessels within 15 miles, and Shell’s planned well locations, for this year, are nine miles apart.
The wells are grouped around the Burger discovery made originally by Shell in the early 1990s. In 2012 Shell was able to drill a partly-complete well, Burger “A” at the site of the earlier discovery.
Company spokeswoman Meg Baldino has previously said Shell chose not to return to Burger A this season because it believes a better picture of the potential reservoir can be gained by drilling at nearby locations identified as Burger J and V in the company’s drill plan.
Shell has permits to drill two wells. The company can operate in the Chukchi Sea into the fall, most likely late September.
“Our plan is to make as much use of the time that we have in theatre before the ice arrives in (fall) 2015. Whatever we don’t accomplish in the summer ahead we are fully prepared to finish in 2016,” Baldino said in the statement.
2015 media coverage...
Alaska Dispatch News, Shell's return brings changes to airport, Coast Guard presence in Unalaska by Jim Paulin.
To encourage awareness and build solidarity with effected communities, Chukchi Sea Watch worked with Alaska-based grassroots citizen groups to organize public protests in Anchorage and Juneau on June 18th. Media coverage below....
Alaska Public Media, Anchorage Protesters Demonstrate Against Shell's Arctic Drilling Plans by Lori Townsend.
Juneau Empire, In solidarity with Seattle, Juneauites protest Polar Pioneer by Katie Moritz.
Archives
Rolling Stone, Meet the Rappers and Kayaktivists' Out to Stop Shell's Giant Oil Rig, by Antonia Juhasz, May 22, 2015.
Juneau Empire, Alaska village pulls out of lawsuit that stalled drilling, Associated Press, March 25, 2015
New York Times Magazine, The Wreck of the Kulluk, by McKenzie Funk, Dec. 30, 2014
Alaska Dispatch News, Inupiat tribal leader wins prize for opposing offshore drilling, by Lisa Demer, April 16, 2012
more coming soon....
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