Responding to a legal challenge, a U.S. federal appeals court delayed until at least mid-August Royal Dutch Shell plc’s plans to begin exploration activities in the Beaufort Sea off the Alaskan coast.

The ruling could put the kibosh on plans by subsidiary Shell Offshore Inc. (SOI), which was scheduled to begin drilling some exploration wells on the Sivulliq prospect beginning in August (see Daily GPI, July 11). Oral arguments in the lawsuit are scheduled for Aug. 14, according to an order by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court order states in part, “Vessels currently located in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas shall cease all operations performed in furtherance of that program but need not depart the area.”

The legal dispute between SOI and stakeholders has been brewing for several months. Although the Minerals Management Service approved the exploration program in February, SOI had not yet completed a workable conflict avoidance agreement with area stakeholders that include the North Slope Borough, to ensure that subsistence whaling and other harvesting activities in the Beaufort Sea are not threatened.

Area whalers want Shell to cease operations for up to 30 days in September when bowhead whales migrate along the Northern Alaskan coast; SOI had wanted to cease operations for 10 days in September.

Besides the North Slope Borough, others challenging SOI in court are a group of indigenous organizations called Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands, as well as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Alaska Wilderness League. The lawsuit noted that the environment both on- and offshore would be degraded by the operations. The groups requested an emergency stay to prevent the project from moving forward.

In a statement, North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said, “The industry and the government have to slow down and listen to the scientists and the concerns of the whalers…We stand the chance of losing our whaling crews and the traditional food that feeds our families.”

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