Sept. 9, 2012, 11:06 a.m. EDT
By Angel Gonzalez
After a six-year wait and clearing countless hurdles, Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s U.S. unit said it began drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea on Sunday.
This is the first time in more than two decades that the oil industry gets access to the U.S. offshore Arctic. If successful, Shell’s foray could pave the way for the exploitation of one of the world’s last oil frontiers.
Shell’s bid to tap the Arctic’s vaunted offshore oil and gas riches has met with resistance from environmentalists, strict scrutiny from cautious regulators and persistent sea ice. Now the Anglo-Dutch oil giant must cram as much drilling activity as it can in a short window that lasts through late September in the Chukchi Sea and late October in the Beaufort Sea, depending on weather forecasts.
One of the two drillships Shell has leased for the Alaska drilling campaign, the Noble Discoverer, early Sunday began digging the so-called “top hole” of a prospect dubbed “Burger”–which includes a 1,400-feet-deep pilot well and a 20-by-40-foot hole right beneath the seabed, which will house the blow-out preventer, a valve that is designed to kill any unexpected gushers. Burying the blow-out preventer in that fashion protects it from sea ice, Shell said.
The process could take about two weeks, after which it could either proceed to drill the entire well–to a depth of between 7,000 and 9,000 feet, or move the rig to another location and drill a similar top hole, said Peter Slaiby, Shell’s vice president for Alaska operations. The process to drill a well down to its target depth, from initial work to completion, lasts about a month, he said. This year Shell plans to do work in up to five wells, three in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort Sea.
Right now, the company has permission from U.S. authorities to drill only the top part of the wells; a permit to drill in oil-bearing areas can be granted onl after an Arctic spill-containment system is in place, the U.S. Department of Interior has said. The containment system is being tested in Washington State and would require about two weeks to sail to the location, Shell said.
The U.S. government is closely watching the operation; regulators with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which oversees offshore drilling, were present aboard the drillship that began working Sunday. “The public wants to be assured this is done right,” Mr. Slaiby said.
Mr. Slaiby added that drilling these wells, which are located in shallow waters, does not represent major technical challenges, and that sea conditions are more benign here than in the North Sea, for example. The challenge comes from the remoteness of the operation, ice features and low temperatures, he said.
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.
