On Thursday, August 28, Royal Dutch Shell PLC filed a revised offshore Arctic drilling plan with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Their revised exploration plan calls for two drilling vessels to operate simultaneously off the coast of northwest Alaska however the company has said that they have not made a definite decision to return to those waters in 2015.
Authorities with Shell said that the plans were submitted in order to reserve their options for the 2015 season.
That plan proposes two drilling rigs, instead of one, operating in the Chukchi Sea and replaces a plan Shell had submitted last November.
In 2012 Shell had plans of drilling up to three wells a year for two years in the Chukchi and two a year for two years in the Beaufort Sea, however was only able to drill a partial well in the Chukchi and another well in the Beaufort.
The plans submitted are just one step in a process of acquiring many permits before they can drill in the Chukchi.
