Posts from ‘May, 2011’

By John Donovan

This is the first story arising from the 2010 crop of Shell internal communications Shell was legally obliged to supply to us following a further application under the Data Protection Act.

It provides evidence of Shell’s intent to lean on a major newspaper publisher in connection with an article published on this website: royaldutchshellplc.com.

Previous Shell internal emails provided proof of Shell’s intent to pressurize The Sunday Times to “kill” a story about us and our website. The half-page article which revealed how our intervention in the Sakhalin2 project had cost Shell £11 billion was read to me over the telephone by the Sunday Times journalist, but the story was killed hours before publication It contained an interview with the so-called Kremlin Attack dog, Oleg Mitvol, who confirmed our pivotal role and made a most unflattering comment about Shell management.

This time the FT.com was the target of Shell’s censorship ambitions.

The FT sent an email to Shell on 27 July 2010 containing article links published on “The Energy Source” – an FT.com feature. One link was to an article we published on 26 July 2010 under the headline: “A close call for Shell on North Sea platform.”

The article criticized Shell and its CEO, Peter Voser.

That single article link on FT.com sparked the following email correspondence involving Shell.

Some information has been redacted by Shell.

From:
Sent: 27 July 2010 16:39
To:
Subject: FW: Energy Source

Voices from the past.

If you look in the attached you will see that Mr Donovan has managed to get FT.com to refer to his website as if it was a respectable source.

This really irritates me and gives him undeserved credibility. Has shell tried to do anything with the FT? If not or it has not worked I could have a go with

Best wishes,

Tel:                        Fax:
Mobile:

RESPONSE

From:
Sent: 27 July 2010 17:17
To:
Subject: RE: Energy Source

I will find out from the media people what we have done to try to engage with the FT on this. Incidentally, you should be aware that Donovan has access to most of the emails written to and from Shell about him through his regular Data Protection Act requests.

Regards

Royal Dutch Shell plc
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA
Registered in England and Wales number 4366849
Registered Office: Shell Centre, London, SE 1
Headquarters: Carel van Bylandtlaan 30, 2596 HR
The Hague, The Netherlands

I assume that the response was sent by Richard Wiseman (Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer – now retired), the official then designated within Shell to deal with all matters relating to us.

I note the warning in the response, that “Donovan has access to most of the emails written to and from Shell about him…” According to the Data Protection Act, I should have access to ALL emails written to and from Shell about me.

If it was Mr Wiseman, he failed to inform the other party that I had been in email correspondence with him a few days earlier inviting Shell to point out any inaccuracies on the basis that they would then be deleted from the article. I also invited Shell to supply for unedited publication with the article, any comments it wished to make. Shell decided not to take up either invitation. The correspondence was published as part of the article.

I do not know of any other publisher that would bend over backwards to ensure accuracy and provide an opportunity for unedited comment by Shell to be published with an article.

It is ironic that we do not receive due credit from people who have the breathtaking audacity to accuse us of not being respectable, while they once again conspired behind the scenes to lean on another global news organization. It is amazing that Shell should lower itself to act in this manner.

The email exchanges reveal the fear which Shell has for this site. It is well placed, as will shortly become even more evident.

2 April 2011

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shell Oil will apply to drill 10 wells off Alaska’s Arctic shore over the next two years under exploration plans headed to federal authorities.

The company hopes to see results from a $3.5 billion investment into Arctic Ocean drilling that has been thwarted in recent years by court challenges or inability to obtain federal permits.

“Maybe four times is a charm,” said Pete Slaiby, Shell Alaska vice president, on Monday. “This is our fourth Beaufort Sea exploration plan that has gone down the pike. And next week it will be the second Chukchi exploration plan. We feel that we’ve got pretty good and robust plans.”

Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith said the company will seek permission to drill four wells in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north shore and six in the Chukchi Sea off the state’s northwest shore using two drilling ships in 2012 and 2013.

Drilling is bitterly opposed by environmental activists and some Alaska Native groups, who say petroleum companies have not demonstrated the ability to clean up a spill in ice-choked waters. Critics contend leases in the Chukchi Sea were auctioned off before proper environmental studies were performed to determine how drilling and the accompanying industrial activity would affect endangered whales and other wildlife — including polar bears, walrus and ice seals.

The stakes are high for both the state of Alaska — where onshore reserves have diminished and the trans-Alaska pipeline now operates at less than one-third capacity — and for the rest of the country looking to lower its dependence on imported oil. But in light of environmental concerns — and last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico — federal regulators are proceeding cautiously.

Federal officials estimate Arctic waters hold 26 million barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Shell obtained leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north coast in 2005 and in 2008 spent $2.2 billion on leases in the Chukchi off the state’s northwest coast.

The company had hoped to drill exploration wells in 2010 during the roughly three and a half month open water season in both the Chukchi and the Beaufort but its plans were put on hold by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar after the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Salazar suspended applications for drilling and has said the department will take a guarded approach guided by science and the voices of North Slope communities.

Shell’s 2011 plans called for drilling only in the Beaufort. The company in February dropped those plans. The decision was made after an appeals board of the Environmental Protection Agency said it would review the air permit the agency had granted regarding the effect of emissions from drilling ships and support vessels.

Shell officials have said a catastrophic well blowout similar to last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is unlikely because its plans mitigate two key contributing factors. Shell intends to drill in shallower waters. Also, company officials expect far less pressure on their wellhead.

Shell submitted a response plan that it says can handle a spill of 504,000 gallons per day — more than double what federal regulators said would be a worst-case discharge from the exploratory wells it has applied for to date.

Smith says the company expects to submit the plan of exploration for the Beaufort on Wednesday and for the Chukchi soon.

Slaiby said Shell’s previous exploration plans already had received the blessing of a federal appeals court and will benefit from lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We’re building on what we had previously and we have taken and lifted, I think, the right stuff out of the BP Macondo incident and made the plans even more robust,” Slaiby said.

“We really had a good plan that was site specific for Alaska, had looked at things like one-hour response time, and addressed a lot of the issues that folks were saying weren’t available in the Gulf of Mexico.”

He made an analogy to the air transport industry.

“There was a crash,” Slaiby said. “People have looked at what was deficient, and we built upon that. I clearly think that our plan prior was a good plan. Our plan post is a better plan.”

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By Katarzyna Klimasinska – May 2, 2011 5:44 PM GMT+0100

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), which has been blocked from developing leases it holds off Alaska’s Arctic coast, this week will ask the U.S. to approve drilling as many as 10 oil exploration wells by 2013.

The Hague-based company will submit a Alaska Plan of Exploration for 2012 through 2013 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Kelly op de Weegh, a spokeswoman for the company, said today in an e-mail.

“After five years of not being permitted to drill in its 10-year lease blocks, we are now forced to plan on increased activity each year,” she said.

Shell plans for as many as two wells a year in Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea, and as many as three per year in the Chukchi Sea, she said. A delay in issuing an air permit last year forced the company to postpone exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea beyond 2011. Shell’s Beaufort Sea leases expire in 2015.

The New York Times reported Shell’s plans for Alaska yesterday.

– Editors: Steve Geimann, Larry Liebert

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

Royal Dutch Shell is pushing ahead with plans for deep-water drilling in Alaska, despite environmental concerns caused by BP’s disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Arctic Ocean region in Alaska reportedly contains enough reserves to provide fuel for 25m cars for 35 years.

By Amanda Andrews 7:05PM BST 02 May 2011

Risteard O’Domhnaill’s stunning new documentary, The Pipe, which recently wowed audiences at Boston’s Irish Film Festival, is currently taking in a tour of selected U.S. cities, with upcoming screenings in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

O’Domhnaill, a news cameraman by trade, has followed the people of the Erris Peninsula, Co. Mayo as they have battled Shell’s encroachment onto their lands. The oil giant is seeking to exploit the Corrib Gas Field, located 80 km off the coast of County Mayo, by pumping unrefined gas 9km inland through an inhabited area to a refinery.

Documenting key players in the struggle over four years, The Pipe premiered at last year’s Galway Film Fleadh and has since won acclaim at film festivals worldwide, most recently winning Best Documentary Feature at the Arizona International Film Festival, and a similar award at Glasgow’s Celtic Media Festival.

Upcoming U.S. screenings include at the San Francisco International Film Festival until May 5th; the Irish American Heritage Center, Chicago on Friday, April 29th; and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on Saturday, May 14. For full screening details and links to buy tickets, see thepipethefilm.com.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Royal Dutch Shell has been hit with a class-action lawsuit in London by the Bodo community of Nigeria, which suffered a “devastating” oil spill when a key pipeline burst in the summer of 2008.

The new lawsuit against Shell has been sparked by a leak allegedly coming from the Trans-Niger pipeline, which the community says started flowing into the Bodo creek in August 2008.  Photo: AP

Children play on empty fuel containers outside of Savoonga, Alaska, where Shell executives have met with local residents to address their concerns.

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

SAVOONGA, Alaska — Shell Oil will present an ambitious proposal to the federal government this week, seeking permission to drill up to 10 exploratory oil wells beneath Alaska’s frigid Arctic waters.