Seattle mayor says Arctic oil fleet needs new permit to stay at port

SEATTLE – Mayor Ed Murray threw a wrench into plans for a 400-foot oil-drilling rig to arrive in Seattle when he announced Monday that the Port of Seattle can’t host Shell’s offshore Arctic fleet until it gets a new land-use permit.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has been planning to base its fleet – including a drill rig and two tug boats – at the port’s Terminal 5 for six months each year, when they’re not being used in the Arctic. Environmentalists have already sued over the plan, saying the port broke state law in February when it signed a two-year lease with Foss Maritime, whose client is Shell, without doing an environmental review.

Murray said city planners reviewed the use of Terminal 5 as a base for the drilling fleet and found it would violate the port’s 20-year-old shoreline land-use permit, which allows a cargo terminal on the site.

“I expect the port to obtain all required city permits before any moorage or work begins at T5 on off-shore oil-drilling equipment,” the mayor said in a statement. “While requiring a new permit may not stop the port’s plans, it does give the port an opportunity to pause and rethink this issue.”

“To prevent the full force of climate change, it’s time to turn the page on things like coal trains, oil trains and oil-drilling rigs,” he said.

It’s now up to the port to decide whether it wishes to apply for a new permit, city planning spokesman Bryan Stevens said. It could take several weeks to several months for a permit to be issued, he added.

The port could also appeal the interpretation or cancel its lease, among other options.

Port of Seattle spokesman Peter McGraw said the port wasn’t prepared to comment because it had not received any official findings from the city.

Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman, said Monday the company is still reviewing the city’s interpretation.

Shell is considering offshore exploratory drilling again this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast if it can get the necessary permits. The company has argued that its planned activities at the terminal – such as docking, equipment loading and crew changes – are no more environmentally risky than loading or unloading shipping containers.

In its permit review, the Seattle planning department said the proposed use wasn’t compatible with a cargo terminal because “neither the drilling rig nor the tugboats would carry container cargo.”

One of the drill rigs Shell is planning to use if it can obtain appropriate permits, the 400-foot-long Polar Pioneer, arrived in Port Angeles last month, following a journey across the Pacific on its way to Seattle.

Smith said Monday no final dates have been determined for when the drill rigs will arrive in Seattle.