The Kulluk conical drilling rig is docked in the Vigor shipyard in Seattle, where it has undergone refurbishments meant to ready the 1980s-era conical drilling rig for Arctic drilling this summer. (Jennifer A. Dlouhy / The Houston Chronicle)
Posted on September 20, 2012 at 1:50 pm by Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Although federal regulators today gave Shell the green light to begin initial drilling operations in the Beaufort Sea, that work will wait until native Alaskans finish their fall hunt of the bowhead whale migrating through the area.