PORT ANGELES — North Olympic Peninsula economic officials were disappointed Monday to learn Royal Dutch Shell will stop exploring for oil in Arctic waters, leaving a question over whether the company would again dock its mammoth Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig in Port Angeles Harbor this winter.
But it was too soon to tell if the company, the parent company of Shell Oil Co., remains interested in docking the rig again off the city’s shores, Megan Baldino, a company spokeswoman, said Monday.
Royal Dutch Shell leases the rig from Transocean Ltd.
Details upcoming
“We’ll get some more details in the weeks ahead,” Baldino said.
“I don’t have any details about where any of the outfits are going.
“Things have changed so much in a matter of 24 hours.
“People and equipment will be moving south shortly.”
During the 355-foot-tall rig’s stay in Port Angeles Harbor between April 17 and May 14, an estimated $1 million was pumped into the local economy, according to a report prepared for Shell — and numerous environmental protesters were drawn to the North Olympic Peninsula.
The activists, who also protested in Seattle when the rig was anchored there, were opposed to drilling in the Arctic, arguing that resources were insufficient to combat an oil spill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northern shore.
Local mobilization
The Polar Pioneer mobilized out of the Pacific Northwest, including Port Angeles, before it and the oil rig Noble Discoverer were towed to the Chukchi, where they began exploratory drilling this summer.
Ken O’Hollaren, Port of Port Angeles executive director, said Monday the port had wanted to be ready to host the Polar Pioneer again this winter if the opportunity arose.
“That’s changed now, as far as we know,” he said. “We’ll see.
“It’s unclear what’s going to happen.
“There may be some work with unwinding the operation.”
Russ Veenema, executive director of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, also was disappointed.
“Them staying here was a windfall in the spring,” he said Monday.
“It would have been a windfall if they came back.”
If the company decides not to send the oil rig back to Port Angeles, it “will be big in a negative way,” said Bill Greenwood, executive director of the Clallam County Economic Development Corp.
“It does free up space at the port for potentially other marine companies to come here who would like to come here,” he added.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
