By Katarzyna Klimasinska – Feb 17, 2012 5:29 PM GMT
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) won U.S. approval for its oil-spill response plan in the Chukchi Sea, bringing the company closer to winding up a five-year quest to drill off the north coast of Alaska.
Shell must obtain drilling permits from the Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to start work as early as July. The company also needs U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service permission for incidental disruption of polar bears, walrus, whales and seals.
Shell, which has spent about $4 billion on leases, seismic studies and research of Arctic mammals since acquiring access to the Beaufort Sea in 2005, is seeking to drill as many as five wells this year in a region with an estimated 26.6 billion barrels of oil. The exploration plans for both Chukchi and Beaufort seas were approved last year.
Approval of our Chukchi Sea oil-spill response plan is another major milestone on the path to drilling in the Alaska offshore this summer, Pete Slaiby, Shells Alaska exploration manager, said in an e-mail. We will continue to work with regulators and the Department of Interior to achieve the final permits needed to begin drilling in July.
Exploration by Shell in the region was delayed after environmentalists and Eskimos filed lawsuits to block permits, and by the U.S. government after BP Plcs Gulf of Mexico spill in April 2010.
Environmental groups including the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council oppose the drilling, saying more research is needed to identify areas that need to be protected, such as habitats for bowhead whales. The NRDC, Sierra Club and residents in Point Hope, a North Slope village close to the drilling sites, sued to challenge the lease sale that gave Shell access to the Arctic waters.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan 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.
