Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, said in an announcement today about its setback of drilling plans to suck oil off Alaska this year. The company added that a containment dome that was designed primarily to cap the spill was damaged and so has it suffered the setback.

Officials from the company explained that the dome has to be repaired and chances are higher that the repairing work will not leave enough time to dig oil in this year.

To cover up the damages of the setback, the Hague-based Shell has planned to drill few top holes, which they believe will help them to prepare few effective ways to work over the renewed exploration campaign next year.

"We are disappointed that the dome has not yet met our stringent acceptance standards, but as we have said all along, we will not conduct any operation until we are satisfied that we are fully prepared to do it safely", Shell said.

Shell had been preparing for the project since six years and had planned to invest $1 billion in exploration off Alaska this year. The project started this month in Alaska's Chukchi Sea with permit of the U. S. Interior Department but the damage has stopped that all at least until this year.