Is Shell still waiting in Dutch? If so, why?
What is the status of the Arctic Challenger oil spill barge?
What is the towing transit time from Dutch to the drill sites ? 10 days to the Chukchi? 15 days to the Beaufort?
Here is yesterday’s ice: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.003.png
Platform here and drill ship still. One Harvey boat as well. 2 Crowley barges and tugs. Everyone else sailed bout 3 days ago. They can’t do much without main pieces lol. Last we heard the barge down south was almost done with what ever certs it needed. Biggest joke ever least you can almost get a room in the grand alue now and a seat out without being on standby for days. Get these guys out here!
this my friends is Shell Alaska
how many billions have these clowns wasted to date and what do they have to show for it? Why in the name of humanity does Royal Dutch Shell allow this to continue? Maybe this coming winter Shell will get its guillotine out and put it to use!
Just got a hit on AIS. NANUQ and the Coast Guard Cutter HEALEY have just cleared the Bering Straight into the Chukchi Sea northbound at about 11 knots.
NANUQ now at 66-37’ N 167-28’ W Course 066 @ 9.9 kts. It looks like she is headed for Kotzebue, but doesn’t she have too much draft to get into Kotzebue?
I’ve lost the CGC HEALY off AIS.
So that miserable POS NOBLE DISCOVERER is still in Broad Bay but KULUK is not seen on AIS. Is it still in Dutch?
[B][U]btw, it is August fucking 12th today![/U][/B]
Yup she is dockside
It is rapidly becoming more that apparent that Shell ain’t gonna drill SHIT this year in the Arctic. This is outrageous…if I was a shareholder, I would scream then detonate!
Even not being a shareholder, I am getting close to going boom!
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Is ARCTIC CHALLENGER under tow yet?
Negatory still sitting in Bellingham.
[QUOTE=rshrew;78215]Negatory still sitting in Bellingham.[/QUOTE]
Well if this doesn’t tell us that 2012 is a bust for Shell nothing will. What a black eye for them but they gave it to themselves. Now the next time Shell is all full of their big announcements of the glory of their future in the Arctic people in the industry will just chuckle to themselves. Shell is now the company who CAN’T!
By now it is quite apparent that the delay in drilling had nothing to do with ice conditions (which in 2012 are at a record low surpassing the previous record low in 2007), nor did it have anything to do with the NOBLE DISCOVERY dragging anchor.
The real cause of the delay in drilling is the failure of the ARCTIC CHALLENGER to obtain the necessary USCG and ABS certifications, and the failure of Obama’s EPA to issue the necessary air emissions permits.
How could the exhaust gasses from two drill rigs and a couple dozen support ships conceivably have any measurable impact on air quality in the vast and empty Arctic. There is no shortage of pristine fresh air up there. This air emission issue is one the most absurd things I’ve ever heard of. If this is any indication of how oil exploration in the Arctic is going to be managed by our government, I cannot imagine why any oil company would want to subject itself to this nonsense.
But not one bit of this was not known by Shell beforehand and they talked and spun and yacked about how ready they were this year. Regardless of the nonsense of the permitting required, Shell has the resources to do what it takes to get the emissions of the DISCO and KULLUK within the specifications they SAID they would meet and to have has the ARCTIC CHALLENGER finished and ready as they SAID they would. They managed to get 25 other vessels there to DH except for one barge. Why the hell wasn’t it up there first? After years for working on the KULLUK and DISCO why were their emissions still not within the minimum limits? Shell owns the KULLUK and has been dumping millions into the DISCO for years now!
If Shell can afford an AIVIQ, they could afford a brand new Arctic class drillship with the world’s cleanest engines and scrubbers and easily could have built a brand new spill containment barge but they have fucked around with this stupid old antiquated shit for far too long when they could have been building NEW! Hell they built two brand new supposedly arctic capable drillships which are in reality completely incapable to drill in the ice without going back to a shipyard for another 1+ years and more than $150M of work. Why weren’t they finished as arctic ships right off the bat and would have been there right now all certified and ready to go! What the fuck has Shell been doing for the past 5 years to get ready for this! They managed to get the AIVIQ built but it CAN’T DRILL! The only reason that ship turned out is that North American Shipbuilding was in charge.(as an aside, what the hell does Shell plan to use the AIVIQ for this coming winter?..Bring her back to the GoM to run anchors?)
As much as we can blame the government, the reality is that there are people in Shell USA in Houston who DO NOT know what the FUCK they are doing. I was there and began to see it all over time. The NB1 and NB2 are a testament to people who are idiots and those two large bags of soiled pampers sit right on Shell’s doorstep! Btw, those shit filled sacks weren’t just dumped there either…Shell paid for them and how!
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Is anyone drilling in the Russian Arctic this year? Next year?
I do not understand why an oil company would subject itself to all this nonsense in the US, when all it would take is a relatively small amount of cash to get whatever permits are required in Russia. If and when a lot of oil is found in Russian waters (probably within sight of where Shell planned to drill in the US Chukchi), and the US government realizes that it is subject to all the environmental risks of Arctic drilling, but that Russia is getting all of the benefits, then maybe there will be some effort to cooperate with drilling in the US Arctic. These air emissions requirements are totally unnecessary and beyond absurd.
Yes, Shell has sure screwed-the-pooch on providing an ice class oil spill response barge. Exactly what is the problem with certifying the barge?
How are they going to service two drilling sites that are hundreds of miles apart in the Chukchi and Beaufort with only one spill response barge? If the barge was only needed for only one site, why aren’t they already on there way to drill in the other site? Is it air quality emissions?
[QUOTE=tugsailor;78237]I do not understand why an oil company would subject itself to all this nonsense in the US, when all it would take is a relatively small amount of cash to get whatever permits are required in Russia?[/QUOTE]
Do you remember how BP got completely fucked by Gazprom in 2008 and their VP there having to flee the country? While the majors want to play the game in Russia it is always with suspicion and risk that they might end up with a Russian knife in their backs. Contrary to what some might think, the US is a “relatively” complacent government to work with and very low risk business environment. Remember that the US exacts some of the lowest royalties of any nation when it comes to extraction. Tie in to the TAPS or a new TransCanada gas pipeline and you get the energy to market for cheap. Energy is the Russian arctic will cost bank to produce and then transport. In the end the US is the cheaper alternative by far.
No, I believe that the US Arctic is the place that Shell wants to play and the estimated reserves are phenomenal there (something like 30Billion BOE). They seem to not be shy to spend the money but it is HOW they are spending it that is the problem! They’re being downright obtuse and must get their heads straight that they need to build purpose built equipment and then hire the most Arctic Alaska experienced people in the world to at least run the logistics of it. The clown circus they’ve shown themselves to be this season is certainly not going to earn Shell any confidence from the world. The only good thing about not getting anything done this year is that they won’t have an accident and by the looks of things so far, I wouldn’t bet against that having occurred.
What I suspect now is that Shell will go to the government with a request for their leases in the Arctic to be extended saying that they made a “good faith effort” in trying to drill on them. Still very costly when you think that just the mobilization will end up costing at least $600M (likely to be more than $1B by the time all the costs are tallied) this season with what will be little if anything to show for it. I would think the major shareholders will be mighty unhappy with those numbers. Let’s see what Shell’s stock looks like at the end of the year? If they had a good season, I would believe the stock would have done quite nicely based on the future prospects but now???
I agree entirely that the permitting and politicing needed to drill in the Arctic these days is utterly ridiculous but in the end, with the riches to be earned, the cost to comply is tiny. Why is Shell falling down so badly jumping through this hoop? It is certainly not for a lack of financial resources!
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this is what the scene in Dutch Harbor SHOULD have looked like this year
instead it was THIS
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury…I rest my case
Last I heard from TASK guys were emissions passed on everything. They are waiting for the barge to gets it cert. once it gets the cert they can leave and head up. Even without the barge being here I’m sure it will sail right away and be there by the time they ever touch the ground. Oh wait it probably has too…wonder if they know that. I’ll keep you posted as I hear more as I have no life stuck in Dutch.
Thanks for that explanation about drilling in Russia. Now, I vaguely recall the incident with the BP VP.
Excellent points too about the availability of the production facilities at Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Not to mention truck access to Prudhoe. Although, the facilities at Prudhoe Bay would not be much help to an oil field located hundreds of miles away off Cape Lisburne. I assume that the Chukchi oil would have to be shipped out by tanker during about a six month window of operations.
Its really too bad that Shell doesn’t have a lease on the Russian side too, so that they could just work over there until the Obama EPA pulls its head back out into the sunshine and issues the air quality permits and certifies the oil spill barge.
Its hard to imagine how Shell got caught with its pants down so badly on the ARCTIC CHALLENGER. This shows the merit of owning and controlling all the necessary assets for a remote, one of a kind, operation like this.
If the biggest and best new drillships are now costing around $660 Million, what would it cost to build the biggest and best icebreaker/drillship with its own spill response capability – $1 Billion?
First is that you really don’t want a ship but instead a platform that is either bottom bearing or if floating, is shaped such that there is no need to alter it’s heading for any changes in iceflow. That’s why I showed the Russian Prirazlomnaya platform. Although built for both drilling and production, that is the way to go imo. That said, Stena built the DRILLMAX ICEto the tune of $1.1B I have been told and here’s the most ironic kicker of all…Shell has chartered it not to drill in the Alaskan Arctic but off of French fucking Guyana! Yup, you heard me right…fucking West Africa for the world’s most expensive and capable drillship!
Take the $600M lost this season and add the $600M lost on the two BULLY drillships and presto chango…Shell could have had its ultimate arctic drilling platform which will be good for the next 40 years at least! They’ve had years now to have done this. The first BULLY was started in 2008. If Shell US in Houston had people to could see the simple logic of this but they don’t! These past two months we’ve seen the result of that.
Again, how can anyone dispute my claim that Shell US (and maybe Royal Dutch Shell as well) is run by idiotic foolish assclowns?!?
