Deepwater Co-Chairman Supports Shell – Canadian Beaufort Comment Deadline Tomorrow – Seafarers Union Supports ANWR

Rigzone.  It is "perfectly reasonable" to expect that Shell will receive a pending permit to drill off Alaska’s northern coast withinabout a year, the co-chairman of a U.S. panel investigating the Deepwater Horizon spill said Wednesday.William Reilly (NGP Photo), testifying before the Senate Committee on Energy and Commerce, was pressed on the panel’s recent report, which raised concerns about the safety of drilling in the Arctic. The panel had questioned the oil industry’s and the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to a spill in those areas.

ADN by Sean Cockerham.  Conoco Phillips on Wednesday announced its profits from Alaska grew to $1.74 billion last year, even as oil production declined. The same day the company argued to the Alaska AFL-CIO and state legislators that oil taxes need to be cut so more oil can be produced."I think Alaska is at a point it has to decide: Do we want to try to do something to incentivize and mitigate that production decline or not?" said Wendy King (NGP Photo), Conoco’s vice president for external affairs.King and Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski (NGP Photo), who defends the oil tax, argued their positions at a forum held by the Alaska AFL-CIO at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau. Several legislators of both parties showed up to the first forum on the issue to be held during a 90-day session of the Alaska Legislature that’s expected to be dominated by debates over the oil tax.

Alaska Dispatch.  Friday is the deadline for public comment on the federal board’s review, which will look at safety and environmental protection requirements for Arctic offshore drilling.  The NEB says it plans to complete the review before it considers any Arctic offshore drilling applications.

Download our .pdf of Seafarers International Union of North America, AFL-CIO President Michael Sacco, urging the President not to declare ANWR a national monument.  "Our membership believes that a national monument designation for ANWR is a bad policy decision and one that would have a direct, harmful impact on our members and their families," he said.