Shell has abandoned its controversial drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic in the face of mounting opposition.
Its decision, which has been welcomed by environmental campaigners, follows disappointing results from an exploratory well drilled 80 miles off Alaska’s north-west coast. Shell said it had found oil and gas but not in sufficient quantities.
The move is a major climbdown for the Anglo-Dutch group which had talked up the prospects of oil and gas in the region. Shell has spent about $7bn (£4.6bn) on Arctic offshore development in the hope there would be deposits worth pursuing, but now says operations are being ended for the “foreseeable future.”
Shell is expected to take a hit of around $4.1bn as a result of the decision.
Part of those losses include the 2.1 billion that Shell paid in 2008 for leases to drill in the Chuckchi Sea.
Which may help to explain why President Obama was unable to block this exploration even though he has been very vocal about his commitment to renewable resources and addressing climate change in a serious manner.
This really should not come as a surprise since Shell really only had until today to complete this initial operation which was focused on finding deposits large enough to demonstrate that this was a financially viable enterprise.
Well this is good news for Alaska, good news for environmentalists, and good news for the planet.
O/T but boy oh boy this woman is a vicious troublemaker out for blood, Gryphen. Somebody needs to take her DOWN.
ReplyDeleteTexas Mayor Leads The Truther Charge Over Ahmed Mohamed's Clock
Some Texas officials and anti-Muslim activists continued to suggest more than a week after Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest that there was something nefarious afoot when the 14-year-old student brought a homemade digital clock to school.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/beth-van-duyne-ahmed-mohamed-records
Maybe. Read "Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shared."
ReplyDeleteThe book makes clear that things are seldom what they seem. One reality check is that now is not the time to go for oil in remote places. The price doesn't justify it.
DeleteBut wait, no drill baby drill? Waiting to hear the energy experts response to this. Somehow this must be Obama's fault.
ReplyDeleteThat they've spent 7 billion to realize that it wasn't worth their time cracks me up. Greenpeace and environmentalists here in Portland did their best to hold that rig up. To think if that 7 billion was spent on clean, renewable sources. Sigh. When will they wake up....
ReplyDeletePerhaps 7 billion dollars will be a nudge to WTFU.
DeleteYay! So glad that the board members shut this thing down.
ReplyDeleteDrill Baby Drill !!
ReplyDeleteWhat Sarah Palin screamed while Glen Rice was mounted upon her in Molly Heath's Dorm Room. Also too, Curt Menard Jr., Brad Hanson, and Joe Schmidt were receivers of Sarah's orgasmic screech.
DeleteThankfully there was no profitability.
ReplyDeleteShell has been told time and again drilling in the Arctic is a fool's errand, yet, away they went.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, looks as though everyone who banked on fracking is fracked:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/27/1347948/-The-Fracking-Boom-Just-Went-Bust
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/02/13/the-fracking-bust-drilling-for-oil-plunged-34-since-october/
http://www.nofrackingway.us/2015/01/16/fracking-boom-to-bust-net-zero/
All these failures in Arctic drilling and fracking are welcome in my eyes. Mother Earth needs to heal from the torture done to her the last few decades/century.
DeleteI suppose sarah is all bent out of shape as she loves to see the oil industry take a crap on mother earth whenever possible. Drill baby, drill, you ignorant hag.
ReplyDeleteLet her rag all she wants to. There is no "there" there. For her beautiful Alassska, she's more than willing to rip it up stem to stern, as with the rest of this country, instead of being a caretaker of the beautiful world her God created for her 6000 years ago.
DeleteGryphen, just wondering why you say "President Obama was unable to block this exploration." I thought he was unwilling, not unable. I'm hoping that maybe he knew the chances were it would never come to fruition and therefore, instead of being blamed by the drill-baby-drill crowd for not allowing it, he could allow it, knowing it would not happen.
ReplyDeleteI actually think there was a little of Obama knowing the likely outcome ahead of time as well.
DeleteBut I also think that once Shell had paid over 2 billion in leases back in 2008, and had a deal in hand, that he might have been committed to allowing them to drill even if he did not personally approve.
However if you do some Googling you can find that the United States made Shell jump through a number of hoops which slowed down their exploration, while also standing firm on the September 28 deadline.
So yes I kind of think that the President helped Shell fail at this attempt, in a relatively passive aggressive manner.
Of course maybe I'm just reading too much into this and President Obama really is a flaming hypocrite on the subject of climate change.
What do you think?
If the original leases were made in 2008 (thank you, Dubya, you twit), President Obama couldn't have stepped in and negated them. A lease is a lease. I agree with Gryph.
DeleteWhat do I think? Gryphen @11:10 and Anon @ 11:24 are absolutely correct. The President used the bad deal with which he was stuck and made the very best of it so that the next contender for the presidency would not be saddled with the "democrats did it" label. Talk about three dimensional chess, which he increasingly has mastered for the benefit of this Nation.
DeleteThank you all for your very insightful comments. (I am 10:50 above.) You are supporting my intuitive feeling that our President was not denying his own principles but making the best of a bad situation. Someday when he writes his Presidential memoir, maybe he will explain exactly what he was thinking, and it may well include all your ideas.
DeleteYAY !!!
ReplyDeletefrom Anchorage AK ..
Shell has abandoned its controversial drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic in the face of mounting opposition.
ReplyDeleteNo worries Alaska, 2016 Secretary of Energy Sarah Palin will see to it that Shell will Drill Baby Drill in Alaska.
Four billion dollars and seven years and not a drop. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of greedy vandals. They must have been looking up Sarah's skirt when they signed that deal.
ReplyDeleteSo they lost 4 billion dollars, tax write off, what are their quarterly profits? in the trillions? All they have to do is raise the price of gasoline and make it up in no time.
ReplyDeleteI say good riddance and all the creatures of the Arctic are happy to see them go also.
Excellent. Now we only have to make sure Pebble Mine is busted.
ReplyDeleteNow, how is the blocking of the XL pipeline coming?
Well, if they drilled one exploratory well offshore, and quit because of disappointing quantities of oil and gas found... what did they do with the hole in the sea floor? Did they just pull out [coitus interruptus], and leave it to "seep"? Seriously, would someone smart in oil exploration please explain what would have been done by a RESPONSIBLE exploration company? This is a nagging concern I have now...
ReplyDelete