"NTSB Blames Shell for Wreck of Arctic Drilling Ship"

"The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is putting the blame squarely on Royal Dutch Shell’s shoulders for the late 2012 grounding of an offshore drilling rig it owned on an Alaska island.

The report released Thursday came weeks after the Obama administration gave Shell the green light to try again to drill exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean. The grounding was only the end of a series of mishaps in Shell’s aborted 2012 drilling attempt.

The NTSB blamed the grounding and wreck of the Kulluk hours before midnight on Dec. 31 at Sitkalidak Island on Shell’s “inadequate assessment of the risk,” it said.

“No single error or mechanical failure led to this accident,” the NTSB said. “Rather, shortcomings in the design of a plan with an insufficient margin of safety allowed the accident to take place.”

Investigators said Shell knew of the risks of moving the Kulluk through the Gulf of Alaska but went ahead anyway."

Timothy Cama reports for The Hill May 29, 2015.