Shell Reassures on Grounded Drillship

Royal Dutch Shell has reassured people over its drillship that was grounded on an island in Alaska. The oil firm said in a press release that there has been no loss of life, adding that the incident does not "involve any possibility of crude oil release."
The ship, named Kulluk, ran to ground on the southeast shoreline of Sitkalidak Island in heavy seas while on tow to the port of Seattle.
A group consisting of company employees and those from the Kulluk's operator, Noble, the Coast Guard, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation are working to address the situation.
Kulluk was carrying 150,000 gallons of ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel, and approximately 12,000 gallons of lubricating oil and hydraulic fluid at the time of the incident.

Drifting Shell drilling rig grounds on rocks off Alaska

An oil drilling rig owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc ran aground in Alaska after drifting in stormy weather, highlighting the serious risks of working in an offshore region where some in the industry see huge potential.

While the U.S. Coast Guard was concerned about a potential spill from the drillship, named the Kulluk, its hull appeared sound after a few over flights.

Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler said the Kulluk had 143,000 gallons of ultra-low-sulphur diesel and 12,000 gallons of other oil products on board.

The grounding of the drillship, weighing nearly 28,000 gross tons and operated by Noble Corp , is a blow to Shell's $4.5 billion (2.7 billion pounds) offshore program in Alaska.

The rig had been headed to Puget Sound for maintenance and upgrades when it broke away from one of its tow lines and was driven to rocks just off Kodiak Island that night. The 18-member crew had already been evacuated by the Coast Guard because of risks from the storm.

U.S. unveils plan to manage huge Alaskan oil reserve

The U.S. federal government has announced a plan to manage energy drilling on part of Alaska's North Slope, with the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve to be divided between areas available for oil and gas leases and those that are protected from development.

The announcement by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar followed the completion of an environmental impact study, which recommended development of areas that contain about 72 percent of the estimated "economically recoverable" oil in the reserve.

The move drew criticism from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who said the Obama administration had not gone far enough to open up oil and natural gas resources in the area.

Salazar said the plan as conceived would allow for the potential construction of pipelines carrying oil or gas from operations in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas through the NPR region, also known as the Western Arctic Reserve.

The "balanced approach" would help protect "significant caribou herds, migratory bird habitat and sensitive coastal resources that are critically important to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives," Salazar said.

The administration has authorized 177 oil and gas leases in the reserve since May 2011, covering some 1.4 million acres. So far only exploratory drilling has occurred.

Under the blueprint 11.8 million acres would be open for development, which are estimated to hold 549 million barrels of economically recoverable oil and 8.7 trillion cubic feet of economically recoverable natural gas.