After seven years and $4.5B spent, arctic drilling is finally near for Shell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/arctic-drilling-close-for-shell-but-still-elusive/2012/07/20/gJQATHdRyW_story.html

Seven years and $4.5 billion after it bought leases to explore for oil off Alaska’s Arctic coast, Royal Dutch Shell is finally close to drilling a well in the pristine Chukchi Sea, confident that it will discover a vast oil reservoir buried thousands of feet below the seafloor.