7-3-12

Alex DeMarban, Alaska Dispatch, Shell Oil, OCS, Arctic, oil and gas, Photographer Dave HarburAlaska Dispatch by Alex DeMarban (NGP Photo).  This is the third installment of a three-part series regarding Shell's upcoming offshore activity in Alaska's Arctic region.

 
A chunk of ice the size of a small stadium, perhaps a rogue remnant of a distant ice island, recently ground ashore near the Northwest Alaska village of Wainwright, providing a textbook example for the kind of subsea phenomena Royal Dutch Shell must watch for as it considers where to build hundreds of miles oil pipelines.

Note:  Our friend, Tony Hopfinger (NGP Photo-L, with author, in 2001) Tony Hopfinger, Dave Harbouris an owner of the Alaska Dispatch.  Today, he editorialized about, "...the risk of rattling the cages," refering to the Dispatch's editorial position opposing oil industry tax reform.  Here is the editorial, for reference.  We'll have our own editorial response soon.  -dh

Today's CEA links:

The Wall Street Journal: Gas Prices Down 13 Weeks; Longest Streak Since 2008 - Gas prices fell in the past week for the 13th straight week, something that hasn’t happened since a 15-week streak that ended in December 2008. The national average price of retail diesel fuel fell 3 cents to $3.648 a gallon in the week ended Monday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The Journal’s Liam Pleven, who pointed out the trend to us, noted that gas prices have generally been on an upward trend since that 2008 streak.

 
Washington Post: Critics continue objections, but Arctic offshore drilling moves forward for 2012, future years - In choppy water under blue sky off Bellingham, Wash., a Shell Oil crew on Monday lowered a “capping stack” 200 feet in the water and put it through maneuvers with underwater robots connected by cable to operators on the surface, a test that fulfilled one of the final steps required for permission to drill exploratory wells in Arctic waters. The capping stack looks like a giant spark plug and is designed to kill an undersea oil well blowout by providing a metal-to-metal seal on a malfunctioning blowout preventer.