Friday, August 31, 2012

The Permitorium Continues

Updates

September 3, 2012: EPA grants "relief" to Shell; diesel engines on boat being used in the Arctic won't face fines. Shell still needs the permit to drill "the 4,000 feet."

Original Post
The federal government grants permits to drill one exploratory well in pieces: a permit for 1,400 feet; a permit for 4,000 feet, and so on.

The theater of the absurd.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it will be difficult to complete an exploratory well in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska this year even after the company received a permit to begin limited preparatory work.  
Shell will be allowed to drill 1,400 feet under the seabed with the permit granted yesterday by the U.S. Interior Department.  
The company still needs U.S. Coast Guard approval for a spill-containment barge before a permit can be issued to drill about 4,000 feet deeper, into oil reservoirs.  
For the company that spent $4.5 billion to explore the Chukchi and Beaufort seas time is running out -- it takes at least 20 days to complete a well and Shell has to stop drilling in the oil-bearing zone in theChukchi Sea by Sept. 24.  
The company asked for an extension, a request the Interior Department said it is still considering. Completing a well in the Chukchi “will be very, very difficult without the extension,” Pete Slaiby, Shell’s head of Alaska operations, told reporters during a conference call from Anchorage yesterday.
Can you imagine if North Dakota required a permit for the vertical hole, another permit for the curve, a third permit for the horizontal leg, and then a fourth permit for fracking? One could then add a permit for flaring; a permit for putting up porta-potties: one for men; one for women; one for undecided.

Ayn Rand would shrug if she were alive.

4 comments:

  1. 'One for the undecided.' LOL. Love it Bruce. Your site is the1st website I go to every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for taking time to comment. I always look forward to reading comments, though often I have some anxiety about what might be said.

      I have to thank others for sending me a lot of these links, links I would otherwise miss.

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  2. Small towns, small numbers.

    Smile

    http://www.gonzalesinquirer.com/news/article_f05b573a-f2e7-11e1-9884-001a4bcf887a.html

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    oil

    http://www.ohio.com/news/local-news/stark-county-well-s-oil-production-has-ceo-gushing-1.327223

    anon 1

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    Replies
    1. 1. The link about small town's tax revenues in Texas: sounds like the Bakken all over again.

      2. That second link....very, very interesting. A stand-alone post coming. I'm not sure if the spokesman is overly enthusiastic but comparing the Utica to Eagle Ford is very, very interesting. I love to see these stories. There's no way Ohio is going to ban fracking, and I doubt Ohio wants the Feds to get involved in the process. States' rights.

      Delete

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