ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) †Shell Oil cleared one of the last remaining hurdles to Arctic offshore drilling Friday as the federal government said it has approved the company's spill response plan for the Chukchi Sea.

Environmentalists and Alaska Natives living along the Arctic Coast have bitterly opposed drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a prepared statement that the federal government was taking a cautious approach.

"In the Arctic frontier, cautious exploration †under the strongest oversight, safety requirements, and emergency response plans ever established †can help us expand our understanding of the area and its resources, and support our goal of continuing to increase safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production," Salazar said.

The federal government estimates there are 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Arctic Ocean's outer continental shelf reserves. The total includes both the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska's northwest coast, and the Beaufort Sea off the state's north coast.

Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, hopes to drill up to three wells in the[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]