The Arctic drilling season has come to an end, and with it, Shell’s hopes of striking oil in the Chukchi Sea. Royal Dutch Shell announced Monday it would stop oil exploration in the environmentally sensitive region, 140 miles off Alaska, for the “foreseeable future.”
The company received permits from the Obama Administration this year to conduct exploratory drilling, despite massive protests from environmentalists. The exploration has been unsuccessful, the company said.
Shell has invested $3 billion in development of the basin, with another $1.1 billion of “future contractual commitments,” the company said.
“This is a victory for everyone who has stood up for the Arctic. Whether they took to kayaks or canoes, rappelled from bridges, or spread the news in their own communities, millions of people around the world have taken action against Arctic drilling,” Greenpeace USA executive director Annie Leonard said in a statement.
In 2012, Shell lost control of an oil rig during a storm. The equipment, along with 150,000 gallons of fuel and drilling fluid, ended up washed up on an island.
While the company will halt drilling for the “foreseeable future,” Monday’s announcement is not a guarantee that Shell won’t continue oil development in the Chukchi Sea later.
— source thinkprogress.org
[Its not a victory for environmentalists. They stopped it because of economic reasons. not because of protest. When oil price goes up then they will do it again unless we have more political power than them. But obama again become money.]