This week, one of the companies Shell Oil hired to drill in the Arctic in 2012 -- Noble Drilling -- was fined $12.2 million and plead guilty to eight felony offenses for environmental and safety violations aboard its vessels, most of which occurred when it was in Alaska. To those who followed Noble Drilling's calamitous path through the state two years ago, the news that this company was guilty of gross negligence comes as little surprise. While much of the inner workings aboard the drill ships Noble Discoverer and the Shell-owned-but-Noble-managed Kulluk were hidden from the public eye, even the layperson on shore could see there were issues.
While in Unalaska, the Noble Discoverer drifted dangerously close to shore in July, and upon return in November, "backfired" with such intensity that the local fire department initiated a response. The 1970s-built rig subsequently limped into dock in Seward under tow with a faulty propulsion system, which is where the criminal investigation into the vessel's operation began.
At the time, however, Noble Drilling said confidently that it expected the vessel to be back in operation in 2013. Shell also downplayed the problems found in the initial inspection, saying many of the items were already planned for in the Discoverer's post-season maintenance. A few days later, the Kulluk grounded off the shores of Kodiak Island while being towed through a dangerous storm, putting a stop to any plans Shell had to drill the following year.
The two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice found that the violations went far beyond routine maintenance issues. The Discoverer crew failed to use the required oil-water separator to clean wastewater, and falsified log entries saying it was being used. The separator was broken for most of the 2012 season in Alaska, and Noble set up a barrel and pump system, dumping oily, untreated wastewater directly overboard. Ballast tanks were also filled with oily wastewater, which is against the law. A discharge in Unalaska's Back Bay apparently created a noticeable oily sheen. One can only speculate what was dumped unseen into isolated Arctic waters.
A close examination of the criminal complaint against Noble Drilling shows that while the vessel's outdated equipment may have been partly to blame, the crew was also obviously negligent on a criminal scale. The engine shut down numerous times due to a lack of lube oil, not exactly rocket-science mechanics. Alarms were ignored or in some cases dismantled.
So one can comfortably draw the conclusion that the people Shell hired to delicately drill in Arctic waters while swearing to do everything it could to protect the environment were sloppy and lazy on a criminal scale.
But here's the real kicker -- Shell says it isn't going to fire them. Instead, Shell's drilling plans for next summer include bringing the same vessel back to Alaska, managed by the same company. The vessel has undergone extensive repairs and issues from the plea agreement have been addressed, Shell says. And there will be internal and external audits, the company said.
The repairs and safeguards sound pretty good to President of Arctic Inupiat Offshore Rex Rock Sr., who in an opinion piece in October wrote that after learning about the extensive repairs and upgrades that Noble was making to the Discoverer, the partnership between a conglomerate of Native corporations and Shell was "able to respect the decision to have this vessel back."
"The U.S. Coast Guard will be the ultimate decider about whether the investment Shell has made in the Discoverer through its inspections and approval will be sufficient; however, AIO is confident that processes in place will ensure that no harm will come to the people of our region or our environment," Rock wrote.
There are two problems with this line of thinking. First, the Noble Discoverer that came up here in 2012 passed Coast Guard inspections and was approved for use by federal agencies overseeing Shell's plans. No one stopped them, even when they were belching and slipping and slopping oil into Alaska's Arctic waters. So obviously, the safeguards in place to date have about as much teeth as a guppy. How do we know the repairs done truly take care of the problems with Noble Discoverer? Because Noble Drilling and Shell say so?
Secondly, Noble Drilling obviously operated in Alaska with little regard for anything but the bottom line. One doesn't pile up eight felonies (and those were only the ones substantiated -- one can easily assume that others went undetected) without a corporate culture of neglect. Ask anyone with experience operating large vessels about some of the things the Coast Guard found on these ships, and they will tell you that these things cannot happen without deliberate intent and abhorrent policies and practices. But, somehow, we are asked to believe that all that has changed now?
If you think the fines and penalties leveled against the company have any impact, think again. Noble Corporation, which owns Noble Drilling, reported a net income of $147 million in the third quarter of 2014 alone. A key piece of this story is that all this calamity with the Noble Discoverer happened without the equipment or the crew being tested to any substantial degree. The Noble Discoverer never drilled in 2012, and the Kulluk only drilled the top half of the well. They never actually encountered any oil. They also never encountered anything particularly challenging weather-wise in the Arctic, other than playing hide and seek with sea ice. In its revised draft environmental impact statement concerning the Chukchi oil and gas leases, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management stated that the likelihood of a large oil spill of more than 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) was 75 percent. The supposedly cutting-edge oil spill response plans have not been tested -- in fact that equipment never even made it to the Arctic.
And yet, so many problems occurred.
And are we to believe that Shell had no idea what kind of practices were in place when it invited these companies into the waters Alaskans depend on to feed their families and support our economy?
Here's the bottom line. Companies operate in this grossly negligent way in Alaska because we, the state, and the federal government, let them. We endorse their activities in the hopes that they will make us rich. In most of the state, we don't put comprehensive safeguards in place that guarantee companies will act in a way that respects our land and waters as we do. We tell them what we want them to do and then hope they will do it. And guess what? They don't. We learned that with the Exxon Valdez oil spill but even that lesson has been largely forgotten.
So here's a challenge to Shell, to the supporters of offshore drilling in Alaska, and to our newly elected governor and administration -- send Noble Drilling home. The best predictor of future action is past action, and we now know half of that equation. Noble Drilling should be sent packing for disrespecting the valuable waters of Alaska time and again. Quick. Before we forget.
Carey Restino is the editor of The Arctic Sounder and The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman, where this commentary first appeared. It is republished here with permission.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.