US court orders suspension of Shell''s Alaska offshore drilling

21 July 2007

Mumbai: A US federal appeals court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell Plc to suspend oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea off the north coast of Alaska after environmental activists and Alaska Native groups filed a case against the company.

Shell has invested over $44 million for drilling up to four exploration wells during the brief Arctic summer. Shell''s drilling permit runs through October and the company has time till August to obtain a favourable ruling.

Hearings in the case are set for August 14 in San Francisco.

Shell''s detractors in the Beaufort Sea say that environmental impact studies carried out by Shell and approved by the US department of the interior failed to take seriously the threat posed to bowhead whales and other wildlife.

The interior department''s minerals management service approved Shell''s drilling plans in February.

Native whalers say they are concerned that hunting the whales, which they are permitted by the International Whaling Commission, could become more difficult and dangerous.