US officials want to make sure companies can handle a blow-out in remote and icy conditions – without inflicting an environmental disaster The Obama administration proposed new rules for Arctic oil drilling on Friday in an attempt to avoid repeating Shell’s disastrous foray into extreme waters. The proposals, shaped by the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the grounding of Shell’s drill ship in the Arctic two years later, are aimed at making sure companies could handle a blow-out in remote and icy conditions – without inflicting an environmental disaster on the pristine seas. For the first time, US offshore oil regulators will recognize the extreme conditions of drilling for oil in the storm-tossed waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, officials told a conference call with reporters. “The Arctic continental shelf isn’t like the gulf of Mexico,” an interior department official told the call. “The Beaufort and Chukchi seas are incredibly remote.”

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