HOUSTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Despite Washington apprehension regarding offshore oil exploration, Royal Dutch Shell maintains it has the experience needed to work safely in Alaska.
U.S. regulators are examining offshore oil drilling in the wake of the April sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups worry the damage from the Gulf oil spill could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.
Royal Dutch Shell has plans to look for oil in Alaska, though Washington called on the supermajor to outline by next Tuesday how it plans to prevent a major accident in exploration operation in Alaska, the Financial Times reports.
Marilyn Heiman, who directs the Arctic program at the Pew Environment Group, said volatile seas near Alaska makes exploration there more risky than the Gulf of Mexico.
"It would be irresponsible for the administration to approve exploration drilling this summer in the Arctic Ocean, given the serious concerns raised by BP's Deepwater Horizon oil explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico," she said.
But Pete Slaiby, the vice president for Shell operations in Alaska, said his company has encountered few problems since it started working in shallow Alaskan waters in the 1960s.
"These wells do not have the mechanical complexity of a deep-water well," he said.
