Shell says it will drill off Alaska if it can get permits

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it will drill off Alaska's northwest coast in 2015 — if it can get the permits it needs and drill safely.

Speaking in London, Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said today that Shell will move forward with its plan to use two drill vessels in the Chukchi Sea subject to getting permits and legal clearance.

Shell last drilled in Arctic waters off Alaska in 2012. One drill vessel ran aground off Kodiak. The contractor on a second was fined $12.2 million for environmental and maritime crimes.

The company is awaiting a resolution to a lawsuit that challenged the federal government's environmental review before it sold Chukchi leases in 2008.