That’s what’s unfolding this week in Alaska, where a Shell drilling rig called the Kulluk broke free from a tow ship in stormy seas on New Year’s Eve before running aground on the southeast coast of Sitkalidak Island, near the larger island of Kodiak.
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Drilling in the Canadian Arctic turned out to be challenging and expensive, particularly in the offshore where drilling required innovative technology. Short operating seasons complicated logistics for companies who had to contend with the additional risk of variable ice conditions. .
Exploration for petroleum in the Arctic is expensive and challenging both technically and logistically. In the offshore, sea ice can be a major factor. There have been many discoveries of. .
There are 19 geological making up the region. Some of these basins have experienced and , most notably the where oil was first produced in 1968 from . However, only half the basins – such as the .
In June 2007, a group of returned from a six-week voyage on a ,. .
on 's is the largest oil field in , The field was discovered on March 12, 1968, by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). .
Drilling in the peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, led by such companies as in the Sverdrup Basin of. .
In the years post 2000, sedimentary basins offshore were believed by some geologists to have high potential for large oil. .
and (then Statoil) made the Arctic exploration deal in May 2012. It is the third deal Rosneft has signed in the past month, after.
[pdf] From 1983 to 1993, the rig was operated by in . She was mothballed in 1993, and in 2005 she was acquired by and underwent intensive refurbishment. In January. .
Kulluk was strengthened against ice with 3 in (76 mm) thick, reinforced steel, and a funnel-shaped with flared sides enabling her to operate in Arctic waters as moving ice was deflected downwards and was broke. .
• on the CIMSS Satellite Blog• McKenzie Funk, , New York Times Magazine, December 30, 2014.
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