Shall May resume drilling in the Arctic, off the Alaskan coast:
The two rigs they used last time will not be available. The Noble Discoverer has already been broken up (??) Good riddance.
The Polar Pioneer is on the way to the breakers in Turkey. Sadly, since she was still in good condition and “state-of-the-art” even though already 35 years old. Far better shape than many of the old rigs that is still in operation.
It probably wouldn’t matter, since they are planning to drill in shallow water this time, so artificial islands may be preferred. (The Kuluk would have been the option)
BTW the Polar Pioneer was indeed built in the 1980s (1985) but she was/is no relic. State of the art when built. Fully winterized from the start and upgraded several times since to stay relevant for drilling in Norwegian waters.
The Noble Discoverer was originally built for Sonat in Japan in 1976 and had been subject to several “patch jobs” since:
PS> Both rigs were in Singapore for upgrade before going to Alaska for Shell’s last (expensive) adventure there. (I saw them both in Singapore)
The reason why I’m referring to SSDC and the other Canmar, BeauDril etc. assets as “relics” is that they were cold-stacked in the Arctic for such a long time. SSDC has not been operational since 2006.
Nobody has a plan on how to stop, prevent and clean up any of the issues around drilling when you add ice to the problem so I cant see it ever going ahead.