By John Donovan

This is an update of our articles relating to the Getz family who claim that they were poisoned by Shell gas flaring.

Donna Getz sought the intervention of the Oil and Gas Commission Board in Canada only to discover that Shell has a representative on the board.

She is seeking justice and according to our unofficial expert sources appears to have a strong case.

We have also published related information supplied to us by a Shell Canada insider.

Shell has a track record of supplying toxic products deadly to insects, crop pests and humans… Shell employees at a drins’ production plant were even used as guinea pigs in a related study of carcinogenic properties carried out by the Royal Dutch Group. Brands such as “Shell TOX” were banned years ago.

Now people are being poisoned by gas flaring. Shell has rightly been condemned for its gas flaring in Nigeria, which has persisted for decades despite promises by Shell.

This story is about Shell gas faring in Canada.

We have today published on the Internet a file containing a further 18 pages of medical and hospital reports, providing more compelling evidence about the Getz case. It has also been added to the index of extensive evidence we have already published. Please take the time to glance through the various medical reports, including one by a professor. The consequences of the toxic Shell gas flaring in British Columbia, Canada, have been devastating and frightening for Donna and her husband.

It seems an opportune time to raise the issue again bearing in mind the current news that a Shell/Motiva refinery in the USA has just “released unknown amounts of butadiene, benzene and hydrogen sulfide because of equipment failure”.

EXTRACTS FROM BLOOMBERG ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON 14 FEBRUARY 2011

Motiva Enterprises LLC’s Norco, Lousiana, refinery released unknown amounts of butadiene, benzene and hydrogen sulfide because of equipment failure, according to a filing with the National Response Center.

Motiva’s Port Arthur plant in Texas has operating conditions that require the flaring of gases, according to a recorded message left on a community hotline.

Motiva is a refining and marketing joint venture of Saudi Refining Inc., a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., and Shell Oil Co., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Ted Rolfvondenbaumen, a Shell spokesman, declined to comment on the events, citing competitive reasons.

Donna recently contacted Mr Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary & General Counsel Corporate of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Mr Brandjes was typically decent and sympathetic in his response, urging Donna to obtain updated medical reports before recontacting Shell Canada.

Unfortunately, as a direct consequence of the severe ill health, which has destroyed their lives and caused the death of livestock on their farm, money is not available to fund the costs of obtaining any further medical reports.

Under the circumstances, perhaps a kind benefactor would be prepared to step forward and cover the costs?

Donna also needs good legal representation on a “no win no fee” basis.

Her email address is: getz_donna@hotmail.com

Extracts from some recent emails received from Donna.

Dear John:

It would be nice to do all of these things but we do not have the money to do this.  We are living on my husband’s old age pension and it does not stretch very far.  We cannot travel to get more medical reports.  We cannot afford the hotels and associated travel costs.  All we get in the end is: We cannot do anything for you.

We wonder every night whether we are going to wake up in the morning or if our lungs will fill with fluid and we will die.  Lots of times I wake up because I either hear Ole’s lungs wheezing or my own.  Our lungs burn and this increases with activity.  We went to town on Monday and we are both sick now.  It is more than frustrating.

I talked to the Oil and Gas Commission to see if they would relook at the data and they said the file was closed as nothing was wrong.  I tried the office in Victoria and they won’t answer the phone.  I tried the Court Registry and they won’t answer. I wrote to the Prime Minister so see if I get any help there.

I am sick, tired and more than frustrated with this whole thing.

The doctor we need to see is Dr. Kaye Kilburn in California as he has studied the effects of sour gas for years.  He did charge $1500 per person to see him.  Then the costs of travel, accommodation and meals on top of this.  He has lots of studies on the effect of h2s on people.

Thank you.
Donna

John:

We just lost another horse, this time a registered belgian mare.  Her lungs gave out.  We have three left that were there.  Makes us wonder whether it will be us or one of them next.  This mare was worth her weight in gold.  Little wonder we are bitter and ready to fight.  Shell was the only one there.  How can they say it wasn’t their fault?  Oil and Gas Commission told me the same thing the other day, that Shell did nothing wrong.  They won’t even look into the data again.  They tell me it is over.

I will write another day as I am too hurt to write properly.

Donna

RELATED ARTICLES

Comments on Donna Getz allegations against Shell

Shell toxic chemical legacy in USA

Comment by an outspoken former employee of Shell Oil USA

John,

Please send my regards to Donna Getz and her family. And my condolences for the loss of her prized horse. They are marvelous creatures.

I doubt that any senior manager in RD Shell has half the character and courage that horse had, and I am dead serious about that.

I know it appears somewhat silly, but us Western Folks can get very attached to our horses. In fact, in the State of Montana I do believe that stealing a man’s horse is still a ‘hangin’ offense’. That old statute is still on the books. Stealing a man’s wife is one thing, but god help you if you steal his horse. (The last time anyone was hanged in my old home town as a horse thief was around 1914.)

My Best Regards to Donna and Her Family,

In an Irish era of government gone absolutely mad, The Pipe takes viewers into an altogether deeper circle of hell, as a community of hardworking people face up to the might of the Irish State, the oil giant, uniformed gardaí and hired goon squads from private security firms as they struggle to protect the town of Rossport and its surroundings.

By Brian Fitzpatrick

“Once you come into Erris, all law is suspended. Shell takes over the law.” – Pat ‘The Chief’ O’Donnell.

Ken Saro-Wiwa could have told Pat O’Donnell a thing or two about the wonders of the law according to Shell, before he was hanged in 1995 by Nigeria’s military government. The author and TV producer, as president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, led a nonviolent campaign against Shell and its cronies in the Nigerian government as they polluted his native Ogoniland in the Niger Delta.

When four chiefs on one side of a divide within the Ogoni movement were murdered in May 1994, Saro-Wiwa and eight others were accused of inciting youths to carry out the killings. All were found guilty and sentenced to hang, despite worldwide outrage. Many of the witnesses called to testify against the men later admitted that they had been bribed by the government to do so; a 2001 Greenpeace report indicated that some had even been offered jobs with Shell in order to secure their lies. In June 2009, though denying responsibility for the men’s deaths, Shell agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement of $15.5 million to the families of those executed.

Watching Risteard O’Domhnaill’s stunning new documentary The Pipe (screened on Wednesday by Ireland’s TG4 as An Píoba), one couldn’t help but think of what Saro- Wiwa would have made of the plight of the people of the Erris Peninsula, Co. Mayo as they have battled Shell’s endangerment of their on and off-shore livelihoods over the past 11 years. Filming key players in the struggle over four years, The Pipe premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in the summer and has since won acclaim at film festivals worldwide.

Considering the people little more than an irritating afterthought, Shell are looking to fully exploit the Corrib Gas Field (a reserve of natural gas situated 80 km off the west coast of County Mayo) by pumping unrefined gas 9km inland through an inhabited area to a refinery. Work on the offshore section occurred in the summer of 2009, with work on the onshore pipeline set to begin shortly, after a recent Bord Pleanála ruling which approved the third proposed route to link a landfall at Glengad to a gas terminal at Bellinaboy.

In an Irish era of government gone absolutely mad, The Pipe takes viewers into an altogether deeper circle of hell, as a community of hardworking people face up to the might of the Irish State, the oil giant, uniformed gardaí and hired goon squads from private security firms as they struggle to protect the town of Rossport and its surroundings.

Horrendous scenes of locals being beaten by gardai will be nothing new to those who have followed the ins and outs of this saga, but viewers fresh to the Orwellian square-off will be shocked. For example, at one point a swimming protestor in a wetsuit is covered (apparently deliberately) with the seabed contents of a crane’s bucket, as Shell tears the local beach asunder to suit its piping needs, all the time protected by authorities.

Probably the two most high profile episodes to have arisen from the 11-year campaign against Shell include the jailing of the so-called Rossport Five, and the seafaring protests undertaken by local area fishermen, led by Pat ‘The Chief’ O’Donnell.

The Rossport Five: James Brendan Philbin, brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff and Micheál Ó Seighin, were jailed for three months in 2005 for contempt of court after they refused to obey a court injunction forbidding them to interfere with Shell’s work on their land.

In 2008 O’Donnell laid 800 crab pots along the intended path of the Shell vessel Solitaire, and heroically defended them under the shadow of the largest pipe-laying ship in the world. After being arrested, O’Donnell’s boat was eventually sunk by masked raiders – all because he had the audacity to break a “sea exclusion zone” imposed to protect Shell. He endured 158 days in prison for his troubles.

It is the latter tale which makes up the most dramatic part of the documentary, as O’Donnell squares up to the Garda water unit which arrives on the scene to ensure smooth passage for the oil company. In poignant scenes, with the hulking Solitaire looming over him like some sort of modern day Amistad, O’Donnell is seen to be on first name terms with the gardaí who arrive to arrest him. It’s a crushing reminder of how a government’s insistence that a corporate giant be accommodated for a paltry sum has torn a community apart.

Just how paltry is this sum which has seen the Irish government abandon its own?

Shell operates and holds a 45% stake in the Corrib Gas project, with Statoil holding 36.5% and Vermilion Energy 18.5%. Mathematicians among us will see that doesn’t leave much for the benefit of the Irish people. Although government figures put the value of the reserves at €420 billion, owing to deals made by the Haughey government, the people of Norway will see a great deal more of that than we will. Norway, you see, owns 67% of Statoil, which in turn holds 36.5% of the Corrib project. As part of what has been termed “The Great Oil and Gas Giveaway”, our public stake in the Corrib project amounts to a big fat whopping zero.

In 1987, Minister for Energy Ray Burke (since jailed for corruption) abolished all royalties on petroleum and natural gas extraction and removed Ireland’s right to participation, in what DickSpring labeled an act of “economic treason.” In 1992, then Minister for Finance Bertie Ahern reduced the tax rate for exploration companies from 50% to 25%. By 2009, Ireland’s was ranked the lowest government take on such resources in Western Europe.

On top of the paltry tax rates for this and other West Coast fields, Irish law even allows companies to export our gas rather than sell it to the Irish market. There is not even a requirement that any oil or gas found is landed in Ireland. In what it has called “an exciting opportunity for the petroleum industry”, our outgoing government has invited even more applications for similarly lucrative exploration licenses. The petroleum industry is, as you can imagine, suitably “excited”.

But the depressing economics aside, the tale of the activists from the co-called Shell to Sea movement and related groups such as Pobal Chill Chomáin is a human story which has finally been done justice by O’Domhnaill’s film. Among the locals featured are O’Donnell, the farmer Willie Corduff (one of the Rossport Five) and the firebrand Maura Harrington, a schoolteacher who at one stage goes on hunger strike as the Solitaire arrives in Broadhaven Bay. Corduff in particular displays a knowledge of his homeland and its wildlife which will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

It’s a tale of might against right, containing all of the classic divisions within resistance movements, brought on by the temptation of money and the clash of ideologies and varying levels of militancy. Tempers flare at local meetings, with some open to compromise and others, such as Harrington, insisting that “if you blink, they’ll put the boot in.” You get the strong sense that these are real people, and not the left-wing nutters which the Irish media has often portrayed them as.

They didn’t miraculously fall from Mars bent on toppling a benevolent oil giant for the sake of it. Rather, they stood up for themselves at a time in 2005 when 500 women had placed their names on a waiting list for $5,000 Hermes shopping bags at Dublin’s Brown Thomas. In short, they stood up for themselves when easy money was flowing and Ireland didn’t give a damn about their plight. They stood up for themselves outside Connacht football matches in the rain when those going to the games asked “Who are those lunatics with the banners?” They are you and they are me.

With planning now in the final stages, is there any hope for the people of Erris? Many of the activists such as Harrington have vowed to continue the fight, even though the project’s finality now seems a given. Yet, in spite of the Irish government’s absolute insistence that the situation cannot be remedied, the recent worldwide re-appropriation of reserves debunks this myth, which is repeated ad-nauseam in the hope that the Irish people will believe it.

In Russia in 2006 the State’s Gazprom wrested the largest integrated oil and gas field in the world, on SakhalinIsland, from Shell’s hands. Evo Morales has done it in Bolivia. Hugo Chavez has done it in Venezuela. In Ecuador in August, Rafael Correa’s government began renegotiating 33 foreign oil contracts following the passing of a law which gives Ecuador 100-percent ownership of its crude oil production whilst paying instead a tariff for services.

News just in: the government of a country can change the law of a country, and can decide which corporations operate within it. There is another way, and it’s not too late. It will however require the next Irish government to put people ahead of corporate interests, a concept a whole generation of us have yet to see in action.

In April 2007, Wille Corduff won the Goldman Environmental Prize. No Irish government representative was present. Previous winners include Ken Saro-Wiwa.

For more on The Pipe see thepipethefilm.com

SOURCE ARTICLE

OVERTON v. SHELL OIL COMPANY:

On December 22, 1999, Mr. Overton formally announced to Ms. Sistrunk that he was working with the Department of Interior and of his status as a whistleblower. On January 19, 2000, while Mr. Overton was working on MP252, federal agents boarded the platform armed with weapons and issued grand jury subpoenas based upon alleged violations of environmental regulations.

BY JOHN DONOVAN

We have already published articles revealing how Royal Dutch Shell terrorized a Malaysian whistleblower, the former Shell Production geologist, Dr John Huong. Dr Huong has accused Shell of psychological torture.

In the USA, there are Federal and State laws to protect whistleblowers from the retribution of malevolent employers such as Shell Oil.

The following are extracts of an email we received from William Overton, a Shell whistleblower who reported serious safety breaches on Shell production platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico, including falsification by a Shell contractor of U.S. Mineral Management Service reports supplied to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The information at the head of this article is an extract from a judgment by the Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

The entire remarkable document detailing the treatment Mr Overton received at the hands of Shell can be read here. He was awarded over $600,000 in damages. The appeal court affirmed the trial court’s finding that Shell terminated Mr. Overton because he was a whistleblower. The damages award covered lost wages, pension, fringe benefits, and emotional distress.

In his email, Mr Overton makes reference to an investigation by the U.S. authorities concerning Shell bribes to MMS employees, which included *Cocaine and Sex. For the record, we were approached by the U.S. authorities in relation to a bribery investigation relating to Shell Oil and supplied the U.S. government with leaked Shell internal documents.

We may publish further information supplied to us by Mr Overton.

*See SEX, DRUGS & CORRUPTION SPONSORED BY SHELL

EMAIL PURPORTEDLY FROM WILLIAM OVERTON

Dear Alfred,

I was a loyal front line employee and protected Shell as a good employee should.  Unfortunately, Floyd Landry with Shell Oil Company  offered me up to MMS so he could keep his bonus.

When I confronted Floyd and told him that I broke no laws and I was being railroaded he laughed at me and instructed me to take it to court.  He also offered me $5000.00 to settle and quit Shell Oil. I filed my own proceedings and soon found out I was outmatched. I learned to play as dirty as I was treated.

I reported violations to MMS to discover they were being investigated for accepting bribes from Shell that included Cocaine and sex.

William C. Overton, Jr.

Royal Dutch Shell is to boost its investment in Brazil by billions of dollars after surpassing its forecasts for oil production in the country last year.

By Robin Yapp, Sao Paulo 6:54PM GMT 14 Feb 2011

Tuesday February 15,2011
By Andrew Johnson, Deputy City Editor

OIL prices are set to surge in coming years as supply fails to keep up with burgeoning demand from the booming growth in emerging market economies, Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday.

The oil giant’s warning came as the Brent Crude price hit a 28-month high of $104 on the back of turbulence in the Middle East and rising imports to China.

In a report published yesterday, Shell said demand for energy in 2050 would triple ­compared with levels seen in 2000 while supplies may only grow by 50 per cent.

It said improvements in energy efficiency could cut demand by a fifth. This will leave the world having to work out how to close a gap between ­supply and demand equal to the energy industry’s entire output in the year 2000.

“This gap, this zone of ­uncertainty, will have to be bridged by some combination of extraordinary demand moderation and extraordinary production acceleration,” the company said.

Shell predicted that oil ­production would hit a plateau by the end of this decade but prices would continue to rise before them.

The report said India, China and other developing nations were entering their most energy-intensive phase of growth, putting “pressure on prices and generating volatility”.

While coal was abundant and alternative energy, such as biofuels, would become more significant, it said there was no “silver bullet” that would solve the problem.

“Over the next four decades, the world’s energy system will see profound developments,” added chief executive Peter Voser (right). “Heightened collaboration between civil society and the public and private sectors is vital if we want to address economic, energy and environmental challenges.”

Shell said the financial crisis had accelerated the shift in power from west to east, increasing political uncertainty and the likelihood of price shocks. The company also warned of a growing risk to the environment through carbon emissions.

Among risks to growth, it said, were uncertainty over greenhouse gas emission regulations and the fall-out from BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

However, there could be growth from huge resources in Iraq and natural gas. The company said it was crucial businesses and governments took the right decisions now.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell and Brazilian sugar-production group Cosan said Monday they were forming one of the biggest joint ethanol fuel ventures in the world, with an estimated market value of $12 billion. The new entity, to be called Raizen, will employ around 40,000 people and produce over 2.2 billion liters (580 million gallons) of ethanol per year to Brazilian and international markets, the two companies said in a statement.

Hi John,

Hope you are keeping well, just to update you on the film ‘The Pipe’, its incredible the timing both at home here in Ireland, and abroad.

Danny Devito was in Dublin a few days ago, got a copy of the dvd to him, he watched it on the plane back to America and tweeter today to
over a million followers:

Danny_DeVito Danny DeVito
Ok,would you fine folks just see the Documentary Pipe example of the attacks peeps face protecting their livelihood n W Ireland from Shell O

We are screening in London at the end of March in this festival: Human Rights Watch, London
Curzon 30th March
Ritzy 31st March
www.hrw.org/en/iff/pipe

Talking to venues and cinemas about trying to get something going for the weeks following the HRW festival so will keep you updated on that.

We are in the Irish Film & Television Awards this Sat night and up for best feature doc Screening at Berlin Film Festival this Sunday: http://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html

Following night at the Cinema for Peace Awards Gala (shortlisted for the Environmental Award): http://www.cinemaforpeace.com/

I have attached the ‘Cinema for Peace’ press release and it is fantastic the amount of big names in the selections and behind the organisation itself -- could be a huge opportunity for us and the film!

If you had the chance could you post about the Berlin Film Festival and the Cinema for Peace Awards, and maybe embed the trailer in the post too?

We have a list of other festivals below (some nominations are not official yet), including San Francisco, Washington, Zagreb, Boston Irish (which we have been told we have won) and Celtic Media Festival in the Hebridies www.celticmediafestival.co.uk :
May 2011 NYC Library Screenings (thru IFI) NYC
21.04.11 -- 05.05.11 54th San Fran Intnl FF San Francisco
26th March 2011 Boston Irish Film Fest Boston
Winner: Best Documentary Film
23.03.11 -- 01.04.2011 Human Rights Watch FF London
15 -- 27 March 2011 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
Washington DC
8th -- 17th March 2011 One World Intnl FF Prague
4th -- 6th March 2011 Salt Spring FF British Columbia, Canada
27th Feb -- 6th March 2011 Zagrebdox FF Croatia
14th Feb 2011 Cinema For Peace Awards Berlin
13th Feb 2011 Berlinale Intnl FF Berlin
Official Selection: Culinary Programme
12th Feb 2011 IFTAs Dublin
4th Feb 2011 CineGael FF Montreal Canada
Jan 2011 Palm Springs Intnl FF California
Nov 2010 IDFA Amsterdam
Honourable Mention: Jury Green Screen Award
Nov 2010 Foyle FF Derry
Winner: Best Documentary Film
Nov 2010 Corona Cork Intnl FF Cork
Oct 2010 BFI London Intnl FF London
Sept 2010 Toronto Intnl FF
Toronto
8th July 2010 Galway Film Fleadh Galway
Winner: Best Documentary Film

All the best

Richie

Richie O Donnell

--
www.thepipethefilm.com
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pipe-The-Film
www.variety.com/review/VE1117943512.html?categoryid=2863&cs=1&query=The+Pipe+the+film
www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Featured_Videos/ID=1590885523
www.thepipethefilm.com/main-sect/the-pipe-reviewed-by-screen-daily/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMSLuxuf_iE

Subject: Brent Bravo: watch Mark Carne

Dear John,

This email contains information about Mark Carne (right), who is currently employed by Shell as Regional Vice President for Middle East and North Africa. He reports directly to Malcolm Brinded. This email account has been set up to safeguard my anonymity, as Mr. Carne is known to not handle criticism very well.

Over the years you have reported about Brent Bravo http://royaldutchshellplc.com/tag/brent-bravo/, and consistently linked the matter with Malcolm Brinded. Maybe the time is right to take a closer look at Mr. Carne, who was the manager for Brent at the time. Mr. Carne’s style is to manage-by-viewgraph and to ignore or suppress unwanted information from the work floor. He instigated bonuses that led to the “Touch F*** All” culture on Brent; he remained clueless about their negative impact while others had already become concerned. Several years ago, Mr. Carne didn’t get a job in Shell UK that he was hoping for, and he left to take a role in BG. It didn’t take BG long to release him.

I would not have bothered to write down any of the above, if I hadn’t found out recently that Mr. Carne has joined Shell again. In his new role there is more potential for damage. The first signals are already noticeable. It would be really concerning if he ever was to be considered as a candidate to succeed Mr. Brinded.

Regards,
Someone who prefers to remain anonymous.

EMAIL ENDS

RIGHT OF REPLY OFFERED BY JOHN DONOVAN: MR MARK CARNE IS INVITED TO SUPPLY A RESPONSE IF HE TAKES ISSUE WITH THE VERACITY OF ANY INFORMATION STATED ABOVE. HIS REPLY WOULD BE PUBLISHED ON AN UNEDITED BASIS.

Related Articles

1. What is going on in Brinded’s inner circle?

2. Shell Names Mark Carne As Country Chmn For Dubai, N Emirates

Monday, Sep 27, 2010

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch ShellRoyal Dutch ShellLoading… plc (RDSB) said Monday it appointed Mark Carne as executive vice president and country chairman for Shell Group in Dubai and the U.A.E.’s Northern Emirates.

Carne will take “over the responsibilities of Raoul Restucci for Shell Upstream International with responsibility for the businesses in the Middle East and North Africa,” the oil company said in an emailed statement.

Carne, who is also a member of Royal Dutch ShellRoyal Dutch ShellLoading…’s Upstream International Leadership Team, was employed with Shell
until 2005, his last role being managing director for Brunei Shell Petroleum. He was also with BG Group as executive vice president and managing director for Europe and Central Asia.

-By Brinda Darasha, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1688; brinda.darasha@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.

SOURCE ARTICLE

3. Mark Carne, Chairman of Dubai and Northern Emirates Region, Royal Dutch Shell plc

18 Jan 2011

Mark Carne has been Chairman of Dubai and Northern Emirates Region at Royal Dutch Shell plc since September 2010. Mr. Carne served as an Executive Vice President of BG Group plc since May 1, 2005 and also its Managing Director of Europe & Central Asia since March 2006. Mr. Carne served as Managing Director – North West Europe of BG Group Plc since May 1, 2005. He joined BG from Shell, where he served as Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum and Country Chairman … for Shell companies in Brunei until 2005. He was employed with Shell until 2005. He also worked in upstream assets and held a number of commercial and general management roles in the UK and the Netherlands. His first Middle East assignment was as engineering manager with Petroleum Development Oman from 1992 to 1996. Prior to that, Mr. Carne served as the Asset Director, responsible for Shell’s U.K. North Sea oil production. His international experience includes various general management roles in the U.K., Holland and Oman covering operations, engineering, commercial and business development. Mr. Carne holds a B.Sc in Engineering Science from the University of Exeter, UK and a Chartered Diploma in accounting and finance from the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.

SOURCE ARTICLE

How Shell infiltrated Nigeria

By John Donovan

The Dutch Parliament recently held a hearing on the activities of Shell in Nigeria, partly in response to this 38 minute documentary  by the Dutch TV programme “*Zembla”: The dirty oil from Shell.

The eyes of the world have been focused on the Gulf of Mexico, where BP took several months to stop an oil leak deep under the sea surface. In the meantime, a 50 year oil disaster is happening in Nigeria.. Since SHELL started their hunt for oil in Nigeria, an estimated 1.5 million barrels of oil have flowed into groundwater, drinking water and rivers. The population wants it to stop. The activity has generated billions in profits for the leading Dutch/British oil company, but it is accused of environmental and human rights abuse.

ZEMBLA went to the delta of Niger and saw the practices of Shell.

Although the documentary is on a Dutch website with Dutch subtitles, much of the commentary and interviews, including a brief one with Shell CEO Peter Voser, are conducted in English language.

LINK TO THE DOCUMENTARY

http://beta.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1060249

*Zembla is a Dutch television documentary programme by VARA and NPS. The documentaries are based on in-depth research that can take months. The subjects are often controversial. (Information from Wikipedia)