BP Spill Thwarts Shell, Statoil in Arctic Oil Drilling Delay

KARI LUNDGREN | JULY 2010 | SOURCE: Bloomberg

BP Plc’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will keep the planet’s biggest pot of untapped oil and gas under the Arctic ice for now as regulators toughen drilling rules and demand better ways to handle spills.

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Royal Dutch Shell Plc has had plans to explore off Alaska halted by both U.S. authorities and a federal court ruling last week. Norway’s Statoil ASA faces government restrictions on drilling in Arctic waters, while BP, responsible for the Gulf spill that prompted scrutiny of offshore drilling, has put off developing its Liberty prospect in the Beaumont Sea until 2011.

“There will be new regulations and requirements that we need to take into account,” said Hege Marie Norheim, head of Arctic development at Statoil, Norway’s biggest energy producer. “We all want to learn from the Gulf of Mexico, and if that requires more time, we will take that time.”