By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 28 (Reuters) - No one will drill inArctic waters off Alaska this year, but there is still plenty ofoffshore work for the oil industry to do when conditions finallyallow it next month.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which canceled its 2013Arctic offshore drill season after numerous troubles there lastyear, plans to send ships to study sites around oil prospects inthe Chukchi and Beaufort seas, according to permit applications.
The company plans to do specialized surveys in the Chukchi,investigating shallow water hazards and other features aroundits prospects, said Curtis Smith, Shell's Alaska spokesman."This work continues to increase our understanding of thesub-surface and ocean bottom near our leases," he said viaemail.
The Chukchi survey will involve one or two ships, accordingto Shell's permit application, a far cry from the armada amassedlast year for preliminary drilling. Shell also plans scientificand ecological baseline surveys in both seas, collecting data inpreparation for more aggressive exploration activities.
Smith said no decision had been made about drilling in 2014.
Two other firms plan to conduct seismic surveys off Alaska'scoast. The most extensive program will be by SAExploration, which will have eight vessels survey the Beaufort,according to its application for permits submitted to federalagencies.
Another, TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company, plans touse two vessels to conduct surveys in U.S. and internationalwaters of the Chukchi Sea, according to its permit application.
Shell, SAExploration and TGS-NOPEC plan to start work asearly as mid-July and continue as late as October, according totheir applications. Permits are pending but have not yet beenissued, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
These plans are a shadow of what was contemplated a yearago, when Shell expected to complete multiple exploration wellsoff Alaska and ConocoPhillips was preparing for a 2014drill season at its Devils Paw prospect in the southern Chukchi.
But after the grounding of a Shell drillship in the Gulf ofAlaska, citations for safety and environmental breaches on itssecond rig, and equipment failures, Shell had to limit lastyear's drilling to incomplete "top holes" at two sites. Futuredrilling is shelved until repairs are completed on both rigs atshipyards in Asia and other equipment is reviewed and augmented.
Conoco has also postponed its drilling plans indefinitely.
For the U.S. government, which is promoting increased energyproduction as part of a new National Arctic Strategy, falloutfrom 2012 is just a setback.
"I think it is safe to say we were disappointed in Shell'sperformance last year," Tommy Beaudreau, director of the U.S.Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said at a meeting inAnchorage this month.
But Beaudreau added that he is still bullish on energyexploration in the waters off northern Alaska, and the relativelull in activity this year should not be seen as a harbinger offuture events, given ongoing interest from the industry.
