The Obama administration moved closer to greenlighting offshore drilling in a portion of Alaska’s Chukchi Sea that has been tied up in the federal courts, raising the possibility that Royal Dutch Shell could resume drilling there this summer.
The Interior Department released a final environmental impact statement Thursday for a plot in the Chukchi Sea. Federal courts had questioned a 2007 environmental study conducted by the department that justified the 2008 lease sale, which pushed the department to review its estimate for recoverable oil resources.
“The updated analysis is a major step toward resolving the 2008 oil and gas leases that have been tied up in the courts for years,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said. “We remain committed to taking a thoughtful and balanced approach to oil and gas leasing and exploration in this unique, sensitive and often challenging environment.”
Shell has been waiting to learn whether it can drill in the area, known as Lease Sale 193. While the oil company had shelved its Arctic drilling plans following a series of mishaps in 2012, its chief executive said last month that it was considering restarting its Arctic program this summer.
Jewell has the final say on whether the lease should be affirmed, changed or scrapped. That decision is expected by March 25.
The final environmental impact statement significantly increased the amount of recoverable oil resources from 1 billion barrels of oil to 4.3 billion barrels of oil as well as 2.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The move comes after the Obama administration moved to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska off limits to oil and gas drilling, which Republicans said violated a 1980 pledge from Congress to keep some of the area open for future oil and gas exploration. The administration also took 9.8 million acres of Arctic waters off the market in its draft five-year offshore drilling plan.
Environmental groups praised those earlier decisions, but slammed Interior for hinting it would OK the 2008 Chukchi lease sale.
“Permitting new drilling in areas like the Arctic Ocean undermines conservation and climate progress,” said Dan Ritzman, Alaska program director for Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign.
