SEATTLE — Royal Dutch Shell is forging ahead with plans to park two Arctic oil drilling rigs in Seattle, risking possible fines from the city and ignoring port commissioners who have asked Shell to wait.
Shell’s plan to move the two rigs to Seattle in coming days sets up a showdown between environmentalists and oil exploration advocates and touches off a wider debate about climate change and whether the nation should tap oil and gas reserves in the icy, remote Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s coast.
A Shell spokesman this week said it has a valid lease to use about 50 acres of terminal space on Seattle’s waterfront and a tight timeline to prepare its fleet for exploratory oil drilling this summer in the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska, so it is sticking to plans to park its drilling fleet on Seattle’s waterfront.
“Should Shell bring the rigs to Terminal 5 before the appropriate permits are in place, Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development will evaluate the situation and could issue a notice of violation,” said Jason Kelly, a spokesman for Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said in an e-mail Wednesday.
Murray last week said the Port of Seattle, a public agency, needs a new permit before it can moor in Seattle. And Port of Seattle commissioners Tuesday night passed a resolution asking Shell’s host, Foss Maritime, to tell Shell to delay coming here. The resolution says they want the delay to allow for further legal review of the city’s interpretation of a new permit.
A Shell spokesman said the company understands the request for more time, but its plans have not changed.
“Given the short windows in which we have to work in the Arctic, and our shared view that Shell’s lease and the supporting contract with Foss is valid, we have made the decision to utilize Terminal 5 under the terms originally agreed upon by the parties involved — including the Port of Seattle,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in an e-mail Tuesday. “Rig movement will commence in the days to come.”
