If Shell’s Chukchi Sea drilling operations (operations de forage) manage to penetrate underground rock formations in waters off Alaska’s north coast this season and don’t find oil (pétrole)that could be the end of the company’s controversial Arctic drillings, according to a report from the BBC.
“Our plan for the Arctic is to find out whether there is any oil in the Chukchi Sea,” Shell CEO (chief executive officer) Ben van Beurden told the BBC.
« We are in the middle of that drilling campaign and we have to see at the end of the season whether we get into the reservoir. If these results are conclusively no, then it will probably be the end of the road for our Alaska adventure.
Van Beurden also used the BBC interview to defend Shell’s Arctic efforts against environmental critics from Greenpeace or Hillary Clinton.
« I think ultimately the world needs energy,” he said. “Fossil fuels (énergies fossiles) will have a role to play simply because there is not an alternative available in sufficient quantities within the timetable we are talking about.”
Oil and Gas has Been Good to Alaska, Providing Jobs and Revenue
- The petroleum industry supports one-third of all Alaska jobs, generating 110,000 jobs throughout the state.
- For future generations, a portion of the state’s oil revenues was set aside in 1976. Now the Alaska Permanent Fund distributes an annual dividend to every eligible Alaskan.
- Since the annual dividend started being distributed in 1982, a family of four has received a total of $133,461.
- As of November 2014, the Alaska Permanent Fund was worth approximately $51.7 billion.
- A family of four received an estimated $22,000 in value from the oil industry in 2010.
- The State of Alaska has collected $157 billion (in today’s dollars) from oil since 1959.
- Oil and gas revenues continue to dominate the state’s unrestricted revenue stream, accounting for 89 percent, or just over $6 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2010.
- Even with falling production, the state estimates 90 percent of its revenue will continue to come from the oil and gas industry.
