壳牌阿拉斯加采油船搁浅带来的启示

    去年三月，我有幸成为25年来登上壳牌公司（Shell）石油钻井船库鲁克号（Kulluk）的第一位记者。现在，这艘钻井船正身处阿拉斯加湾环保大戏的舞台中心。

    库鲁克号是一艘圆形钻井驳船，直径266英尺，可容纳100名工人在极端气候环境下工作。我登上它的时候，它正在美国西雅图进行最后一次改装，耗资2.92亿美元。改装完成后，它将部署在阿拉斯加北冰洋沿岸地区，同另外一艘一起，共同执行皇家荷兰壳牌公司（Royal Dutch Shell）去年夏天北冰洋沿岸的钻探任务。壳牌公司的管理人员相信，库鲁克号与其姊妹船、诺布尔发现者号（Noble Discoverer）将在阿拉斯加广袤的北部浮冰海域发现大型的新油田——壳牌公司希望这些油田能成为公司最大的原油来源。（参阅《财富》杂志2012年5月刊《壳牌缘何豪赌数十亿美元开采阿拉斯加原油》（Why Shell is betting billions to drill for oil in Alaska）一文）。

    不幸的是，恶劣的天气迫使公司压缩了去年夏天的钻探计划，而现在，大自然母亲的报复严重打击了壳牌公司从其在阿拉斯加50亿美元投资获得稳定回报的希望。周一晚上，库鲁克号在穿越冬季风暴被拖回西雅图的途中，这艘钻井船从拖绳上滑脱，搁浅在一座荒岛上。即使没有发生最坏的情况，装有大约14万加仑的柴油和1.2万加仑的润滑剂的燃料舱内完好无损，这次事故还是迫使壳牌公司将钻探工作推迟一年。

    壳牌公司的开采许可允许它配备两艘钻井船，以备井喷时其中一艘船可以用来开钻减压井。壳牌公司计划今年夏天恢复钻探，但库鲁克号能否及时修好（前提是这艘船可以抢救回来的）尚属未知；不太可能出现的情形的是，壳牌公司再找一艘钻井船替代库鲁克号并为这艘船办妥相关手续。与此同时，华盛顿的一些政客提出要进一步迟滞——如果不能彻底叫停——壳牌的海上采油项目。“石油公司总是说他们能征服北极，可惜北极并不这么认为，”美国众议院自然资源委员会（Natural Resources Committee）委员、来自马萨诸塞州的民主党众议员艾德•马基在周二的一份声明上指出。“拓展钻探海域对如此敏感的环境来说将是灾难性的。”

    Last March I became the first journalist in 25 years to board the Kulluk, the Shell oil-drilling ship now at the center of an environmental drama unfolding in the Gulf of Alaska.

    The Kulluk is a circular-shaped drilling barge, 266 feet in diameter, that is equipped to hold 100 workers and operate in extreme weather conditions. When I toured it, the Kulluk was docked in Seattle, undergoing the last of $292 million in modifications before being deployed to Alaska's Arctic coast. It was one of two Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) vessels set to commence exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean coast last summer. Shell officials believed the Kulluk and its sister ship, the Noble Discoverer, would find massive new oil fields underneath Alaska's icy, northern waters -- oil fields Shell hoped would some day become the company's biggest source of crude oil. (See Fortune's May issue: Why Shell is betting billions to drill for oil in Alaska)

    Unfortunately for Shell, bad weather forced the company to curtail last summer's drilling plans, and now Mother Nature has dealt an even harsher blow to Shell's hopes of getting a timely return on the nearly $5 billion the company has already invested in Alaska. On Monday night, as the Kulluk was being towed back to Seattle during a severe winter storm, the drilling vessel broke free from a tow line and ran aground on an uninhabited island. Even if a worst-case scenario were to be averted -- the Kulluk's fuel tanks, which hold an estimated 140,000 gallons of diesel and 12,000 gallons of lubricants, are apparently intact -- the accident could force Shell to shelve its Alaskan drilling for yet another year.

    Shell's drilling permits require it to use two drilling vessels, just in case one is needed to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout. Shell is supposed to resume drilling this summer, but it's unclear whether the Kulluk can be repaired in time for summer drilling (assuming the vessel is salvageable) and even less likely that Shell could find a suitable replacement for the Kulluk and secure the necessary permits for a new ship. In the meantime, some politicians in Washington are sure to demand another delay -- if not a complete halt -- to Shell's offshore plans. "Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies," U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday in a statement. "Drilling expansion could prove disastrous for this sensitive environment."