( CNN ) -- An ice floe forced oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to call off its preparatory drilling off Alaska just a day after the controversial work started , the company announced Monday . The drifting chunk of ice , more than 32 miles long by 12 miles wide , forced the drill ship Noble Discoverer to move off the planned well as a precaution , company spokesman Curtis Smith said . But the ship will be re-anchored within the next few days , and drilling will resume , Smith said . Shell began work on its planned well in the Chukchi Sea , about 90 miles off the Alaskan North Slope , on Sunday . The Interior Department granted the company permission to begin `` certain limited preparatory activities '' -- including work related to the installation of a blowout preventer -- on August 30 . Shell 's plans had been held up by BP 's disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico , which prompted a review of offshore drilling plans . Environmental groups argued against the project , warning that a spill would be difficult to plug and clean up in the remote and inhospitable Arctic . Shell says it 's working at far less depth and lower pressures than the BP well that erupted off Louisiana , destroying the Deepwater Horizon drill rig and killing 11 men aboard . But Steve Oomittuk , the mayor of the Alaskan coastal town of Point Hope , said he 's keeping a wary eye on the Shell operation and has concerns about what the future will bring . `` There 's nothing we can do now but I worry about the weather and the animals we depend on for our survival , '' he said . If `` Shell finds what it thinks is down there then many other companies are going to come and then it will only be a matter of time before something happens out there . '' The U.S. Geological Survey estimates more than 90 billion barrels of oil and nearly 1,700 trillion cubic feet of natural gas may be recoverable . The shrinking of the region 's sea ice -- which hit record lows this year -- has created new opportunities for energy exploration in the region . The amount of the Arctic covered by sea ice fell in late August to the lowest point since satellite observations began in 1979 , the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported . That trend has stretched into September , with 45 % less coverage than September conditions in the 1980s and 1990s . Climate researchers say this decrease in sea ice a symptom of a warming climate , caused largely by the combustion of carbon-rich fossil fuels . The science is politically controversial but generally accepted as fact by most scientists . CNN 's Miguel Marquez contributed to this report .
Shell began work on its controversial Arctic project Sunday . An ice floe forced the company to halt work on Monday . The U.S. Coast Guard said it was investigating a report of an oil spill in Alaska's Cook Inlet, but no injuries were reported and there is "no indication that any hazardous materials have been released." Environmental groups say a spill there would be catastrophic .