API: Permit process in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea shows need for greater efficiency

API: Permit process in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea shows need for greater efficiency WASHINGTON, August 4, 2011— API welcomed the news that Shell has finally received conditional approval from BOEMRE for its revised Exploration Plan for the company’s planned 2012 and 2013 drilling programs in the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. Richard Ranger, a senior policy advisor at API, cautions that this is only a small step in what has been a multi-year permitting process:

“API hopes that today’s decision marks the start of a regulatory process that is thorough, efficient and predictable — one that allows exploration for valuable and needed energy resources and that ensures development takes place in a responsible and sustainable way, without new major regulatory impediments or delays.”

“The slow pace and frequent hurdles to permitting projects like Shell’s has cost jobs, revenue and energy production. The company’s plans for operating in Alaska’s OCS have undergone rigorous environmental impact evaluations by regulatory agencies, and are subject to some of the highest standards in the world. Our industry’s nearly 40 year operating record in the area demonstrates that a balance is achievable between development of strategic energy resources and conservation of habitat, wildlife, and subsistence resources in the region.”

“Shell has been prepared to explore in Alaska’s OCS since 2007, but regulatory and legal challenges have prevented the company from drilling a single well, during a period when Shell has been able to drill over 400 exploration wells elsewhere around the world.”

According to a recent study by Northern Economics and the University of Alaska, an annual average of 54,700 new jobs would be created and sustained for decades from exploration and production on the Alaska OCS, with 68,600 during production and 91,500 at peak employment. A total of $145 billion in new payroll would be paid to employees over a fifty year period, including $63 billion to employees in Alaska and $82 billion to employees in the rest of the U.S. In addition, a total of $193 billion in government revenue would be generated over several decades, with $167 billion to the Federal government, $15 billion to the State of Alaska, $4 billion to local Alaska governments, and $6.5 billion to other state governments.

API represents more than 470 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $86 million in revenue to our government every day, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.