(Updates with details on the port commission vote)
SEATTLE, May 13 (Reuters) - An activist perched herself on a15-foot tripod to try to block the entrance of a Royal DutchShell fuel-transfer station on Tuesday, in a harbingerof expected protests over the company's plan to store Arcticdrilling rigs in Seattle.
Annie Lukins staged her protest on Seattle's Harbor Island aday after the U.S. Department of the Interior conditionallyapproved Shell's plan to explore for oil in the Chukchi Sea offAlaska, where it has not drilled since a mishap-filled 2012season.
Environmental activists are preparing for three days ofdemonstrations from May 16 against Shell's plans to store twodrilling rigs in Seattle. Protesters say they will meet one ofthe drilling rigs in kayaks as it arrives in the port later thisweek.
Seattle resident Lukins erected the tripod early on Tuesday,backed by other anti-Shell activists, according to a newsrelease.
"I want the next generation to be able to eat fish from theocean whose flesh doesn't carry the killing toxins of crudeoil," Lukins said in a statement. "We need to ban Arcticdrilling now."
The Puget Sound region has for decades been a hub forequipment used in energy drilling in Alaska even as someenvironmental groups and politicians have pushed for theregion's economy to move beyond oil, gas and coal and into cleanenergy.
Seattle's planning department ruled the city's port mustapply for a permit for the company to use it to store drillingrigs, a decision shipping company Foss Maritime hasappealed.
Late on Tuesday, the Port of Seattle commission voted toappeal the city's interpretation of the permit requirements for Terminal 5, which Shell could be using, the port said.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray commended the commission fordeciding that the arrival of an off-shore drilling rig should bedelayed until the proper permits were in place.
"I now hope Shell will respect the wishes of the Port, theCity and the community at large, and not bring an off-shoredrilling rig into Elliott Bay."
A Shell spokesman told the Seattle Times newspaper that thecompany intended to move ahead with the operation as scheduled.
Seattle's City Council unanimously adopted a resolution onMonday urging the Port of Seattle to reconsider its lease atTerminal 5 to host the rigs for drilling in the Arctic, covetedby energy companies for its long-term potential. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reportingby Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney,Andrew Heavens and Ted Botha)
