Royal Dutch Shell PLC can begin preparation work at exploratory drilling sites in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast while it awaits certification for its oil spill response barge, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Thursday. "We are allowing certain limited preparatory activities that we know can be done in a safe manner," he said. The company was granted permission to start digging with its drill ship, but only into the layer of the ocean bottom that's above oil reservoirs. Shell can dig mud-line cellars, which will eventually hold and protect a well's blowout preventer, down 12 metres into the seabed.
