Shell delays Alaska drilling plan due legal dispute
“This lack of decision has delayed drilling for another year – extending the timeline it will take to bring this much-needed U.S. production on line,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in a press release.
Shell had planned to begin initial drilling at its Sivulliq prospect in the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska later this year after spending $44 million on leases in the area in 2005.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is considering a lawsuit filed by environmentalists, whalers and the North Slope Borough to stop the drilling project due to concerns about its impact on whales and other marine mammals.
Drilling on four wells had been delayed last year after the court ordered a temporary halt to Shell’s drilling program.
Juneau-based attorney Eric Jorgensen of the environmental legal group Earthjustice said the decision to delay this year’s planned drilling was logical.
“It makes no sense to march ahead with drilling that threatens bowhead whales and polar bears and the way of life of the people living in the region until the government meets its obligations to consider the full impacts,” Jorgensen said.
Although it is now foregoing that drilling, Shell plans to carry on with its program of collecting seismic data and do other pre-drilling studies in the Beaufort and in the Chukchi Sea this year during the brief open-water season of late summer and early fall.
“Exploration plans for the Beaufort and Chukchi seas are still under development, and seismic acquisition in both the Chukchi and Beaufort seas will continue as scheduled for the third consecutive year,” Smith said in his statement.
(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessIndustry/idUKN2020246220080621
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
