Petroleum News News

According to a report from Petroleum News, Provision in a Coast Guard bill would extend dual escorts even to ships with double hulls. Similar legislation pending in the Senate. Federal legislation authorizing Coast Guard appropriations for 2010 has a provision expanding the requirement for dual tug escorts of oil tankers traveling through Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The Coast Guard bill, H.R. 3619, would require that double-hulled tankers, and not just single-hulled ships as the law now specifies, be accompanied by at least two emergency towing vessels. (Source: Petroleum News)

One of the world's biggest oil companies believes Arctic waters, including those north of Alaska, hold huge promise as an oil and gas frontier, according to a Petroleum News report. Facing depletion of its regular oil sources, Shell views the Arctic as a very tantalizing opportunity to develop new oil and gas resources. The company's views tend to support studies by academics and agencies that Arctic basins contain about 25 percent of the world's remaining undiscovered resources, according to the report. All of these basins are outside of the control of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and most are unexplored and undeveloped.