By Kasia Klimasinska on August 13, 2012
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) is chiefly to blame for delays in procuring permits to drill off the north coast of Alaska, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.
Shell, which had planned to start exploration in July, is reworking the barge Arctic Challenger in Bellingham, Washington, to satisfy U.S. Coast Guard requirements. The vessel is a part of the system Shell has designed to collect oil spilled in case of a well blowout in the Arctic.
“They have not been able to get it done,” Salazar said of Shell at a press conference today in Anchorage, Alaska, monitored by telephone. “If they had got it done, they would already be up there today.”
He said a final decision by his department on whether to permit the drilling would come within “several weeks.”
“I’ll hold their feet to the fire in terms of making sure that we are doing everything we can to abide by the standards of regulations we have set,” Salazar said.
The company, aiming to tap an area estimated to have more than 20 billion barrels of oil, has cut the number of wells planned for this year to two from five, saying that ice covered Arctic waters longer than usual, preventing the vessels from moving in sooner.
“We are in strong agreement with the Department of Interior that drilling in hydrocarbon zones will not begin until the Arctic Containment System is positioned,” said Kelly op de Weegh, a Shell spokeswoman.
Shell’s containment system will be the first of its kind, and there is no timetable for completion, she said.
“Progress related to the final construction of the Arctic Challenger containment barge remains steady,” she said. “We continue to work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard.”
The company is moving other equipment to the area and looks forward to “making the most of the time that remains in the 2012 open-water season,” she said. The company has to quit drilling by the end of October, when ice usually settles in.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at [email protected]
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.
