WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Departmenton Wednesday granted Royal Dutch Shell its final two permits todrill in the Arctic this summer, but said the company cannotdrill into the oil zone yet.
Shell must have emergency equipment called a capping stackdeployable before drilling into the oil zone in the Chukchi Seaoff Alaska, the government said. The company discovered weeksago that an icebreaker it is leasing, called the Fennica, thatholds the required capping stack had a gash in it.
It sent the ship to Portland, Oregon, for repairs. Fixingthe gash and the trip back to waters off northern Alaska couldtake weeks. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner)