The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.’s Oil Spill Response Plan (OSRP) for the Chukchi Sea.

Buccaneer Energy (ASX:BCC) has secured two permits for oil and gas exploration in the Cook Inlet offshore Alaska.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. has completed drilling the Mississippi Canyon 942 #2 well in the Gulf of Mexico at the Telemark Hub.

Buccaneer Energy has agreed to acquire the two main productive leases in the former Cosmopolitan Unit (Cosmo) from Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has contracted the newbuild ENSCO 8506 ultra-deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig to work in the US Gulf of Mexico for 30 months at a day rate of $530,000, plus adjustments.

The Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) has approved conditionally Shell’s Revised Chukchi Sea Exploration Plan set to begin this year.

A Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. subsidiary has contracted Keppel AmFELS to build a moored semisubmersible drilling rig using an existing hull from Diamond’s cold-stacked Ocean Voyager.

McMoRan Exploration continues to build on its successes in its shallow-water, ultra-deep gas play in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cobalt International Energy Inc. says that the Ensco 8503 drilling rig, contracted to Cobalt, has returned to the US Gulf of Mexico following a sublet of the rig to drill a well in French Guiana.