Washington (Platts)--27Jul2011/347 pm EDT/1947 GMT

The top officer of the US Coast Guard said Wednesday that the government is not prepared to respond to an oil spill in Arctic waters if a drilling company fails to control its own well.

Admiral Robert Papp, the agency's commandant, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the government had plenty of resources stationed near the Gulf of Mexico last year and could quickly dispatch communication systems, helicopters and other equipment to BP's runaway Macondo well.

"If this were to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we'd have nothing," said Admiral Robert Papp, the agency's commandant. "We're starting from ground zero today."

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Shell has applied for permits to drill exploratory wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas next summer. The seafloor sits under 120 to 140 feet of water, compared with Macondo that sat below more than 5,000 feet of water.

Vice President Peter Slaiby told the Senate committee that Shell would beat the federal requirement for deploying response vessels within an hour of spills.

"Shell would not be working in the Arctic had we believed there was something, an event we could not control," he said. "We simply would not be there. I believe we have the best oil-spill response plan anywhere in the world.

Slaiby said crews would install two sets of shearing rams in blowout preventers and inspect the devices weekly. Because of the shallower depths, he said, divers could respond to problems on the seafloor in addition to remotely operated vehicles.

Papp said drillers have the lead role in responding to accidents, as BP did after Macondo, but the government must get ready to support them.

"Although private industry may assert they're adequately prepared to respond to a spill, we must also determine what response capability our Coast Guard and nation needs so we can mount an adequate response as exploration advances towards production," he said.

The remoteness of the Arctic would pose other major challenges for oil spill responders, Papp said.

"One of the things that we learned from Deepwater Horizon is if you don't think through what is the worst-possible case, it's difficult for you to plan on how much equipment you'll need," he said. "We had to turn on the oil boom manufacturers around the world to supply us. We had to employ thousands of fishing boats to go out there and do skimming operations.

"None of that exists up on the North Slope. We have zero to operate with at present, so now's the time to start thinking that through."

Senator Mark Begich, Democrat-Alaska, said Shell and other drillers would not get permits to start exploration unless the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement deemed their spill-response plans adequate.

Papp agreed and said the Coast Guard was working with BOEM to ensure that those plans measure up to the potential risks.

"We will be joined at the hip as we approach these new drilling options up in the Arctic," he said.

--Meghan Gordon, meghan_gordon@platts.com