On Thursday Shell declared about postponing the drilling program in Arctic. The program was postponed to 2012 as there had been delays in the process for obtaining the permit regarding air pollution from the United States EPA i. e. Environmental Protection Agency. The Vice President of the Shell Alaska, Mr. Peter Slaiby, said in Anchorage that the stoppage of the exploratory drilling activities of the company in the Arctic coast of Alaska would mean that as many as eight hundred jobs will be lost. Mr. Slaiby said this at the press conference. He also said that the decision taken by Shell to stop the exploratory drilling in the Arctic coast would also prove detrimental for the off shore production of the company. The production could have been beneficial in refilling the pipeline of Alaska as there has been a decline in the output from the oil fields of the North Slope. Mr. Slaiby said so with an assumption that the exploratory program of Shell would have lead towards development.

There are two federal leases that the Shell has in the Arctic Ocean seas which are on the continental shelf of Alaska – one of them being in the north, The Beaufort and the other being towards the North West, The Chukchi. Mr. Slaiby also stated that there was a belief in the company that as good as 5 exploratory wells will be aligned by the regulatory stars in the year of 2010, in summer. But then the company got a set back with the calamitous oil spill of BP in Gulf of Mexico which later on received a court ruling. The ruling made by the court was not to their liking and completely unfavorable for them. Thus the Shell had to reconsider their plans for the coming summer. Mr. Slaiby also did mention about the global energy view of Shell which was that only timely and immediate actions regarding the permission and regulation issues would preserve the off shore Alaska for the year 2012.