SEATTLE: Shell Oil, preparing to return its offshore Arctic drilling fleet to Puget Sound as early as next month, has released a study saying that this year and next its controversial Alaska oil exploration program will pump $172.7 million directly into the Puget Sound economy.That spending is expected to support 1,590 jobs and generate $125 million in wages and $312 million in total economic output, which includes direct, indirect and induced impacts, according to an economic impact study released.
“Part of the golden rules of Shell is to make sure that we make the communities in which we work and do our business better,” said Mark Guadagnini, Shell’s vice president of Arctic maritime and logistics. “It’s nice to say that, but you have to do the study and get the facts.”The report does not break out the number of jobs created in Puget Sound, which has been a point of controversy, but rather tallies those jobs in addition to jobs supported by Shell and its contractors in Puget Sound.
The Port of Seattle said that mooring Shell Oil’s Polar Pioneer at Terminal 5 meant 461 jobs, it was reported in June.But nearly half involved either Shell exploration workers who would head north with the rigs, or people who were already on the payroll of the oil company, its local contractor or the port.
