By Katarzyna Klimasinska – Dec 17, 2010 11:12 PM GMT+0000
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europes biggest oil company, is preparing three exploration plans to meet new requirements for deep-water wells in the Gulf of Mexico after the U.S. lifted a drilling ban, a spokeswoman said today.
Statoil ASA, the Nordic regions biggest energy producer, has filed applications for two new wells since the moratorium ended on Oct. 12, Tony Dore, head of Statoils exploration unit in North America, said on Dec. 10.
Drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet (152 meters) remains idle more than two months after President Barack Obama ended the moratorium as regulators review compliance with environmental and safety rules imposed after BP Plcs Macondo oil-well blast. The U.S. received three applications for new wells subject to regulations introduced after the spill, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said.
It does remain to be seen how long its going to take to get permits approved, Erik Milito, the upstream director for the American Petroleum Institute, said today in a phone interview from Washington. The companies have the ability to move forward in a safe, environmentally responsible manner.
Future drilling permits must first wait on approved exploration plans, Kelly op de Weegh, a spokeswoman for The Hague-based Shell, said in an e-mail today.
Shell operated five rigs, more than any other company, in deep waters when Obama halted the activity following the Macondo explosion, the Interior Department said. The blast killed 11 workers, spewed crude for 87 days and shut a third of the Gulf to commercial fishing.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement received three applications for new wells subject to regulations introduced after the spill, said Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for the agency. Only one of these permits is for activity that was suspended under the moratorium, and has been returned to the operator because it was incomplete.
The agency also returned 11 other permits that were submitted to the agency prior to the lifting of the moratorium, Schwartz said.
The moratorium cut Shells Gulf output by 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Simon Henry, chief financial officer for the company, said on an Oct. 28 conference call.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at [email protected];
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at [email protected].
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: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
