Shell Alaska vice president Pete Slaiby said today that a 2010 exploration program in the Arctic critical to the company's offshore plans could be a go or no-go based on a federal decision expected this week.

He also expressed outrage at the federal permitting processes, calling them "shambolic" and sounding angry that Royal Dutch Shell's stockholders had to pick up the costs of delays. Of 37 permits -- 10 of those major -- that Shell needs for the 2010 work, the company has only two in hand.

"It's shameful -- it's shameful performance," he said. "We are waiting on the edge."

Shell Alaska has spent several billion dollars on leases, Arctic-class icebreakers and more, all aimed toward exploration that will help firm up oil and gas estimates and lead to production. Slaiby said the company has spent $40 million to keep a 2010 exploration season in play, pending permitting and resolution of several legal challenges.

The exploration has been "shovel ready" since 2007, Shell said. Court delays in 2008 and 2009 did afford time to build relationships with Arctic communities like Barrow, where people are concerned about the potential effects offshore development could have on subsistence activities and on sea and land animals.

Federal waters off Alaska's northern shores hold an estimated 25 billion barrels of oil and 120 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making development "one of the greatest opportunities in the Western Hemisphere," Slaiby said.

Shell's Alaska government affairs head, Cam Toohey, said the 2010 season depends on a Department of the Interior decision expected this week.

"If it comes out negative, then we're going to cancel the season," Toohey said at a briefing on Shell's OCS activities in the state Capitol.

Also at play are air quality permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Even without a share of the tax revenues due to the federal government, Alaska is counting on OCS development to keep a steady flow of oil through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.