U.S. Coast Guard and police boats cleared a way through protesters in kayaks at a Seattle-area port on Tuesday so a drilling ship could head for the Arctic on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell.
The Noble Discover is the second drilling ship Shell has sent to the area in recent days.
The activists, who have staged frequent demonstrations during the past two months against Royal Dutch Shell's oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea off mainland Alaska, had taken to the waters just beyond the Port of Everett north of Seattle where the oil rig launched for sea.
The US has issued a permit which allows Shell to resume its oil exploration off Alaska’s Arctic coast.
The permit, which approves Shell’s ability to disturb marine mammals, was granted in the wake of a Greenpeace protest targeting the company’s Polar Pioneer drilling rig.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration signed off on a permit which allows noise from air guns, icebreaking, drilling and anchor handling.
The move is in line with the Department of Interior’s earlier decision which approved Shell’s general plan for its oil exploration in the area.
Norway's government will have to reassess oil drilling boundaries in the Arctic after failing to get parliamentary backing for its original proposal to move them further north.
A number of environmental groups in the US are to sue Shell over plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean.
The Sierra Club and nine other groups are seeking to overturn the government's decision in a petition with the US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The move comes after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management gave conditional approval last month for Shell to resume its fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic.
A group of US senators has called on the Obama administration to halt oil major Shell's preparations for oil exploration in the Arctic.
The move - by mostly Democratic senators - was made amidst fears the region has a limited capacity to respond to accidents.
A letter was sent by the senators to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and urged her to retire Arctic leases in the Chukchi Sea.
A protester perched herself on a 15-foot tripod in a bid to block the entrance of a Shell fuel transfer station earlier this week in protest to the oil major’s planned Arctic drilling.
The protest was staged on Seattle’s Harbor Island after the US Department of the Interior gave conditional approval to Shell for it to explore for oil in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska.
The company has not drilled in the region since a mishap in 2012.
Oil major Shell could face delays in its bid to return to Arctic drilling after a ruling in Seattle that the city's port must apply for a permit for the company to use it as a hub for its drilling rigs.
The region has previously been a hub for equipment used in energy drilling in Alaska and could be used as a space as Shell makes its first stride back into the Arctic in three years.
The company has been planning to return to Arctic oil and gas exploration since 2012, however it is still waiting for the US Interior Department to issue a full blessing.
Oil giant Shell is said to be pushing ahead with plans to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska despite strong opposition from environmental groups.
The company is said to be preparing vessels to begin a two-year programme to explore two to three wells in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska.
Shell's chief financial officer Simon Henry said work was "currently on track".
Oil giant Shell has moved one step closer to oil and gas exploration in the Arctic after the US Interior Department upheld a lease sale from 2008.
In 2012 the company had suffered a number of mishaps in the region.
Now the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will consider Shell’s exploration plan and perform an environmental assessment on it.
The assessment is expected to take at least 30 days to complete.
Rosneft has cancelled a contract with North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) for the use of a jack-up drilling rig.
The Energy Endeavor was due to work in Russian Arctic waters as part of a multi-rig contract commencing in the 2015 summer drilling season.
Chief executive Gary Casswell said: "While not unexpected, we are disappointed by this development but will nevertheless continue to pursue future opportunities in this region by leveraging our previous experience drilling in the Russian Artic."
US and European suppliers to the oil industry are still able to seek work in Russia’s Arctic despite sanctions designed to limit their involvement because the rules don’t apply to foreign subsidiaries.
Schlumberger Ltd., based in Houston and the world’s largest oil services company, and Baker Hughes Inc. have used units based outside the US to bid for business in Russia’s Arctic, according to a Russian government website.
Offshore projects in the Arctic are among those targeted by US and European sanctions against Russia’s oil industry.
Environmentalists have hit out at Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic this year.
The oil giant said it wanted to pursue Arctic oil exploration if it gets the right permits, as it announced it was cutting global spending over the next three years by almost £10 billion.
The new bid to drill in the Alaskan Arctic comes despite previous problems culminating in its drill vessel the Kulluk running aground as it was being towed across the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.
Development in floating concrete structures - which could be used for exploration in the Arctic Ocean - was presented by Norwegian-based engineering company Kvaerner at Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT).
Kvaerner has been designing the concrete structures which would be adaptable to the region, rather than typical fixed platforms seen elsewhere in the industry.
