At a time when Royal Dutch Shell PLC is champing at the bit to begin oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to travel to Alaska on Saturday for a three-day tour of the state's oil-producing regions.

The Interior Department said yesterday that Salazar will spend the first two days meeting with local government officials and stakeholders in northern Alaska about resource development and public lands management. On Monday, he and Bureau of Land Management acting Director Mike Pool are scheduled to hold a news conference in Anchorage.

Drilling supporters and critics are closely watching Salazar's movements for any hint of when he'll announce whether Shell can drill for oil this summer in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Salazar has said he'll release his decision by Wednesday.

Interior has already issued conditional approval of Shell's plans to drill up to five wells this summer. However, the company recently scaled back its expectations due to persistent ice in the region and construction delays. Shell is now hoping to drill one well in each sea this summer and to complete advanced preparation for future drilling seasons.

Salazar's trip was announced shortly after a coalition of environmental groups sought one last time to persuade the Obama administration to block the oil company.

In a letter sent yesterday to Salazar, drilling opponents said Shell's exploration plans won't meet strict safety requirements. They also insisted that continued icy conditions in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas would make drilling too hazardous.

The environmentalists accused Salazar and President Obama of backtracking on their promises to tighten safety requirements for future offshore oil drilling.

In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, "your Department, together with President Obama, has consistently assured the American public that Shell's frontier drilling program in the Arctic Ocean would be the safest and most scrutinized in the history of our nation," the letter says.

"In light of Shell's recent actions and the Arctic's current conditions, you cannot meet your pledge for safety and scrutiny without providing considerably more information," says the letter, which was signed by 13 national environmental groups and an Alaska-based Native group called Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands.

The environmental groups' concerns are similar to those that opponents have raised in legal challenges, at hearings and in earlier petitions ever since Shell received leases for the Beaufort in 2005 and for the Chukchi in 2008 (EnergyWire, July 30).

Specifically, they oppose Shell's June request to ease the pollution requirements that the Noble Discoverer drillship must meet in the Arctic. They criticized the Coast Guard's decision to allow the company to follow lower safety standards for the Arctic Challenger, the firm's oil spill containment vessel.

Opponents reminded Salazar that last month Shell lost control of the Noble Discoverer when the ship dragged its anchor and drifted close to shore. "[T]his is not the first time that problems have been reported with the Noble Discoverer's anchoring system -- just last year, in New Zealand, several of the ship's anchor lines snapped in a storm," the letter says.

The environmentalists also said that Shell initially promised to recover 95 percent of any oil spilled in any Arctic accident. Now, they charge, the company is promising only to "encounter" that oil.

Shell still faces three regulatory hurdles before Salazar can sign off on the final permits. First, the company must prove that the Arctic Challenger, which is still being built in Bellingham, Wash., can meet the Coast Guard's standards. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp on Wednesday said the company is well on its way to completing a list of final mandates for the vessel.

Second, it must demonstrate the effectiveness of its containment dome, which is a key part of the company's oil spill response equipment. Shell's final goal is to secure an air permit compliance agreement from U.S. EPA that would allow the Noble Discoverer to emit more pollution.