Shell to Seek U.S. Approval to Drill as Many as 10 Oil Wells Off Alaska

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), which has been blocked from developing leases it holds off Alaska’s Arctic coast, this week will ask the U.S. to approve drilling as many as 10 oil exploration wells by the end of 2013.

The Hague-based company will submit an Alaska Plan of Exploration for 2012 through 2013 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Kelly op de Weegh, a spokeswoman for Shell, said today in an e-mail.

“After five years of not being permitted to drill in its 10-year lease blocks, we are now forced to plan on increased activity each year,” she said.

Shell plans for as many as two wells a year in Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea, and as many as three per year in the Chukchi Sea, she said. A delay in issuing an air permit last year forced the company to postpone exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea initially planned for 2011. Shell’s Beaufort Sea leases expire in 2015.

The Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea are among “the most unique places of the planet” and oil exploration might pose a threat to polar bears and walruses, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

“The Arctic is ice pack for half the year,” Chuck Clusen, director of National Parks and Alaska Projects at council, said in an e-mail. “The ice pack could freeze over before a well shut-in.”

The New York Times reported Shell’s plans for Alaska yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

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