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Shell changes Arctic drilling plans

ROYAL Dutch Shell filed a revised Arctic offshore drilling plan with US regulators today.

However the company said that it still hadn’t decided whether to return to waters off the coast of north-west Alaska in 2015.

The exploration plan submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in Anchorage has been revised to cover shortcomings in the company’s previous operation.

Shell drilled pilot holes in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in 2012.

But the company was not allowed to drill into oil-bearing deposits because required safety response equipment had not been made available.

The company experienced other problems, culminating with the drill vessel Kulluk running aground as it was being towed across the Gulf of Alaska in stormy weather.

Greenpeace spokesman John Deans condemned any plan for future Shell drilling and warned that the company’s Arctic bungling had already put the region at risk in 2012.

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