The Obama administration on Monday granted Royal Dutch Shell the final permit to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic for the first time since 2012, a move environmentalists vowed to fight.

 

The Interior Department gave Shell the final permit to drill into the oil zone in the Chukchi Sea off northern Alaska after the Fennica, an icebreaker the company leases that carries emergency well-plugging equipment, was repaired after suffering a gash in its hull.

 

The permit was expected as the department had previously approved Shell's exploration program before the Fennica hit uncharted shoals in southern Alaska.

 

Shell obtained the leases in the Chukchi during the administration of former President George W. Bush.

 

Shell has spent about $7 billion on exploration in the Arctic. It has not explored in the region since 2012, when the company suffered a series of mishaps in region, including losing control of an enormous rig, from which the Coast Guard had to rescue 18 workers.

 

The Arctic is home to what the U.S. government estimates is 20 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

 

Shell's determination to drill there has spawned funding drives and a wave of protests by environmentalists who want to protect whales, walruses and polar bears in a vulnerable region that scientists say is changing rapidly due to global warming.

 

Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman, said the company "looks forward to evaluating what could potentially become a national energy resource base." Shell said it was possible it could complete a well this summer, but it is not releasing a timeline for the drilling.

 

 

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sandra Maler)