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Former president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, who made known the position of the people, said the only option was for the company to commence, without delay, a remediation exercise in Ogoniland, and not to infuriate the angry people the more with comments that the pollution was caused by a third party.
Click to continue reading “UN report on Ogoni oil pollution: FG to sanction Shell if ….”
By Alison Campsie
14 Aug 2011
SHELL is under fire for its handling of an oil leak which has left a 20-mile long and three-mile wide slick in the North Sea.
Although the spill, from the Gannett Alpha platform, around 112 miles east of Aberdeen, has now been contained some 100 tonnes of oil have spilled into open waters.
It is the second leak linked to the platform in just over two years.
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By Szu Ping Chan 7:33PM BST 13 Aug 2011
The company said on Saturday that it had managed to “considerably reduce” the leak from a pipe leading to the Gannet Alpha platform, located 112 miles east of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Shell did not say how much oil had been released since the leak was found on Wednesday, but estimated that the size of the sea surface affected was around 31 kms by 4.3 kms at its widest point.
The company added that it expects “the sheen to disperse naturally through wave action and not reach the shore”.
“Shell takes all spills seriously, regardless of size and we have responded promptly to this incident,” it said in a statement.
“Our current expectation is it will be naturally dispersed through wave action and will not reach shore.”
Shell said that a remote-controlled vehicle running inspection checks and monitoring the sub-sea leak would remain at the site.
The spill, though tiny compared with the Gulf of Mexico oil slick, which covered an area of around 5,200 square kms, caused concern among politicians and environmental groups.
Juliet Swann, of environmental charity Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Given the massive economic importance of the North Sea to Scotland’s rural and business economy, the news that there has been an oil spill in our seas is deeply disturbing.
“Any spill, however small, should serve as a warning sign and encourage us to look to a clean, renewable energy future, rather than continuing to invest in dirty oil.”
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13 August 2011 Last updated at 03:02
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to stop a leak at one of its North Sea oil platforms.
The leak was found near the Gannet Alpha platform, 180 km (113 miles) from Aberdeen, Scotland.
The company would not say how much oil may have been spilt so far, though it said it had “stemmed the leak significantly”.
One of the wells at the Gannet oilfield has been closed, but the company would not say if production was reduced.
The company says it has sent a clean-up vessel to the location and has a plane monitoring the surface.
The leak was found in a flow line connecting an oil well to the platform.
‘Finite amount’
Shell confirmed the leak was continuing but said it was being reduced and was “not a significant spill”.
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was in contact with Shell and investigating the incident in the usual way.
The department’s spokesman added that it understood from Shell that there was a “finite amount of oil that can be dispersed” but stressed that regulators were taking the leak seriously.
The Health and Safety executive confirmed it was monitoring the situation.
A Scottish government spokesman also said it was monitoring the situation and would update ministers, adding that Marine Scotland, which manages Scotland’s waters, was in close contact with key organisations including Shell.
A Shell spokesman said it was “managing” the leak.
“We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a sub-sea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area.
“We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it.
“The sub-sea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being de-pressurised,” he added.
It is unknown how much oil may already have been spilt.
The Gannet oil field reportedly produced about 13,500 barrels of oil per day between January and April of this year.
Friends of the Earth Scotland said the spill showed the dangers of offshore drilling in the North Sea.
“Any spill, however small, should serve as a warning sign and encourage us to look to a clean, renewable energy future, rather than continuing to invest in dirty oil,” said Juliet Swann, head of campaigns at the environmental group.
The field is co-owned by Esso, a subsidiary of US oil firm Exxon but operated by Shell.
Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to contain an oil leak at its Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea, but declined to specify the size of the leak.
“We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Gannet Alpha platform. We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a subsea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area,” a Shell spokesman said.
“We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurised.”
Asked about the size of the leak, a Shell spokeswoman declined to say.
One of the wells at the oilfield 112 miles east of Aberdeen has been closed, but Shell did not specify whether output was reduced.
According to Argus Media, the Gannet field produced about 13,500 barrels of oil between January and April. The field is co-owned with US firm Exxon and operated by Shell.
A document available on Shell’s website says the Gannet facilities have capacity to export 88,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Shell also said it had restarted its North Sea Brent Alpha and Bravo fields on Thursday after a seven-month shutdown, while two other fields remained shut.
The company shut all four of its Brent platforms, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, in January for repairs.
“Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo are producing gas for export via the Flags(far north liquids and gas line) to the St Fergus gas plant,” Shell said.
“It is anticipated that Brent Delta will resume export in the near future and Brent Charlie will restart in early 2012.”
The statement said that the work at the Brent fields was technically challenging and depended on the weather in the area.
Before the shut-in, the four Brent fields produced about 4.5 million cubic metres a day of gas, less than 2 percent of current UK gas demand, and just 20,000 barrels per day of oil.
Brent was once Britain’s largest oilfield, and still has global significance as one of the four key North Sea crude streams along with Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk.
The Movement for Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, speaking through its President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo has said that UNEP Ogoniland Assessment Report was already building up tension in Ogoniland and sowing seeds of inter and intra communal conflicts and war.
Diigbo said that the two Bodo oil spills reported in The Guardian, London published on August 3, 2011 for which Shell was said to have admitted responsibility for (involving hundreds of millions of dollars), are in Gokana of Ogoniland, but the UNEP Ogoni Report states that the two oil spills are in Bolo and Ogu local government area, which is outside Ogoniland.
“Bodo West is officially mapped as belonging to Ogu/Bolo LGA but since there are no local settlements, it has been regarded by both SPDC and the Ogoni people as part of the Ogoniland oil facilities. Bodo West was therefore included in the scope of UNEP’s work,” says the report.
Dr. Goodluck Diigbo points out: “This is a tricky clause in the report, which can create confusion and grounds for the usual excuse by Shell not to fulfill its obligation to the Bodo people. I think this is why a critical review of the report is imperative because it is already sowing seeds of conflicts within and between the Ogoni people and their neighbors. I hope that others would not claim what is not theirs, but an early intervention by the United Nations and other NGOs that are interested in conducting an independent review can be helpful. Although there are six kingdoms and two administrative units and over 200 villages in Ogoniland, yet, the UNEP report names one traditional ruler as the overall paramount ruler of Ogoniland. Other traditional rulers believe the report is troublesome. A careful review will prove to the United Nations and the rest of the world that the UNEP Ogoniland Report was not handled with due diligence, but that it still can provide a way forward. At the moment, Shell has not refuted that our statement that it paid for the report. Why is it so difficult to hold those that paid for the UNEP report accountable for oil damages in Ogoniland, since it is the practice that the polluter pays for EIAS?”
On Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at a General Assembly Meeting in Bori, Ogoniland which was addressed by the Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers Association, COTRA, which is an affiliate of MOSOP, the Vice Chairman, Chief Letam Teenwi explained that after three days of study of the UNEP report, COTRA resolved to uphold the MOSOP Statement earlier signed by MOSOP President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo calling for urgent review.
Teenwi called for international support to avert tragedy alluded to by the report, adding that a review would provide a unique opportunity to discuss the full spectrum of international law relating to indigenous peoples rights as they affect the report, including environmental, economic, political and social rights.
The native rulers briefing was attended by representatives of all Federation of Ogoni Women Association, National Youth Council of Ogoni People, Ogoni Teachers Union, Council of Ogoni Churches, Farmers Association of Ogoni, Ogoni Technical Association, National Union of Ogoni Students, Ogoni Students Union (drawn from primary and secondary schools), Council of Ogoni Professionals and others.
Signed by:
Dum Ade John Budam
MOSOP Secretary-General
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AMSTERDAM — Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it is trying to stop oil leaking from a flow line at one of its drilling platforms in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.
Spokesman David Williams confirmed the leak was ongoing Friday and he referred further questions to a company statement. Shell said it cannot specify how much oil may have escaped, but it knows which line had the leak and the flow has been stemmed as the underwater well has been shut in and the line at the Gannet Alpha platform is being de-pressurized.
Shell said it has a remote-controlled vehicle searching for the leak. Meanwhile, a plane is monitoring the surface, and a vessel with cleanup equipment is at the spot.
Gannet is located 110 miles (180 kilometers) east of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
AUGUST 12, 2011 12.23 P.M. ET
LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) Friday confirmed that an oil spill has occurred at its Gannet Alpha platform in the U.K. North Sea.
“We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Shell-operated Gannet Alpha platform,” said Shell spokesman Kim Blomley.
“We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it,” he said. “The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurized. We continue to monitor the situation on the surface and subsea.”
Blomley said Shell has informed the relevant U.K. authorities.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “We are aware of the incident, our counter-pollution and salvage officer is monitoring the situation.” The Health and Safety Executive said it was making enquiries into the incident.
The platform is located 180 kilometers east of Aberdeen. Shell operates the platform along with partner ExxonMobil Corp.’s (XOM) U.K. unit Esso.
-By Alexis Flynn and Konstantin Rozhnov, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207842 9471, alexis.flynn@dowjones.com
By LAWRENCE HURLEY of Greenwire
Published: August 11, 2011
Recent court rulings on the question of whether oil companies and other multinationals can be sued in U.S. courts for alleged human rights violations overseas has made the issue ripe for Supreme Court intervention, possibly as early as this fall.
Oil companies Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. have been battling allegations that they played a role in human rights abuses in Nigeria and Indonesia, respectively.
Shell won a major victory last year when the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell that there was no corporate liability under the statute.
The Nigerian plaintiffs in that case have now filed a petition (pdf) with the Supreme Court. The justices will likely consider whether to take the case sometime after they return in October from their lengthy summer recess.
Although it is notoriously tough to predict whether the high court will take a case, the chances appear reasonably high in large part because there is a split within the federal appeals court on the issue.
There is also the possibility that the court could pass on Kiobel but then take up one of the other cases at a later date.
“Although it’s not clear which of the individual cases the court will review, it seems to be virtually certain that the justices will take up this question within the next two terms,” said Supreme Court expert Tom Goldstein of the Goldstein, Howe & Russell law firm.
The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil over human rights allegations in Indonesia is one of the other prime candidates for Supreme Court review.
In July, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reached the opposite conclusion to the 2nd Circuit when it ruled in Doe v. Exxon Mobil that the lawsuit could proceed in federal court (E&ENews PM, July 8).
Exxon asked this week for the full court to rehear the case en banc. If that request is granted, it would delay any possible Supreme Court involvement.
Just days after the D.C. Circuit ruling, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago also ruled that companies could be held liable, although the court ultimately concluded in that case that claims against Firestone Natural Rubber Co. over its conduct in Liberia did not have any merit.
Other cases on the same legal issue are still working their way through the courts, including Sarei v. Rio Tinto. That case is currently pending before the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed to rehear the case en banc.
The case relates to allegations against mining giant Rio Tinto over its operations on an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Human rights lawyers point out that so far the split in the circuit is 3-1 in favor of companies having liability, if several rulings in the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in recent years are included in the analysis.
“It’s possible that there’s one outlier, and that’s Kiobel,” said Marco Simons, an attorney at Earthrights International, which has intervened in some of the cases in support of the plaintiffs.
Although Simons would not be surprised if the Supreme Court took the case, he noted that the justices may want to wait until there are more rulings indicating a broad split among circuits.
“The Supreme Court typically doesn’t take cases unless there’s a circuit split where the issue is still being bounced around,” he said.
Attorneys for the corporate defendants dispute whether the 11th Circuit has really tackled the question head-on. They also have high hopes that the D.C. Circuit will reverse itself after the en banc rehearing.
The companies have the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has intervened in a number of the cases.
A spokesman declined to comment, but pointed to an amicus brief filed before the 7th Circuit in which the Chamber’s lawyers outlined the organization’s position.
The brief states that, in the past 20 years, there have been 150 lawsuits filed against corporations over their activities in about 60 countries.
According to the U.S. Chamber’s lawyers, to conclude that corporations are liable under the statute is a misreading of international law, which “establishes liability for states and individuals, and not for corporations.”
Click here (pdf) to read the Kiobel petition.
Copyright 2011 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
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: John Great stuff to re-post some historical events in Shell. It shows that your network has mostly been spot-on predicting what was wrong and what would happen. It also shows how long a big company can continue on a substandard level and still do reasonably well. Could it be that a high oilprice has helped a bit? I remember that evil Watts still very well. He has gone completely silent the last few years, exactly what can be expected of a small minded man. Presumably he is working his Japanese garden and repenting in his home church, trying to buy absolution and still hoping not to go to hell but instead a very long time in the purgatory.... I fear in vain! It would be also be nice if you could dig out some old records in which the man with the facial hair (aka Mr TFA) has been promising increasing production levels and if I am not mistaken, he even projected more than 6 million bopd to be reached about now. But he never delivered and still is on seat!! He has been at it for some 15 yrs or more by now. In the past we learned faster in Shell but then there was less fear and more decent people at the top. Keep the good work up!
: SHELL EXPECT US: REPLY TO WILLIAM TELL BY JOHN DONOVAN. We have exchanged email correspondence with you. As I believe I have pointed out to you previously, if you supply any Shell internal emails, we would insist on giving Shell sight of the emails before publication of the emails or any related information. It is our normal practice to give Shell the opportunity to comment on authenticity unless the information comes from a trusted source.
: Well, well - if anyone wishes to get a flavour of what is possible in the wild west of Ireland I suggest you watch the wonderful John Michael 2011 film "The Guard" starring Brendan Gleeson. Anything & everything is possible out there.
: Are we to understand that the violent conduct we witnessed on Irish newsreel shots from Corrib in Mayo were fueled by Shell supplied alcohol to Irish policemen ...tell me no ...innocent decent people protecting their homes
: John saw your reply it all happend ok problem is the Hague is now in charge of the situation all Irish corrib staff have been silenced four people have been let go over their part any one who speaks or produces evidence will suffer big time the cops who got the booze are watching from the sideline also in silence hoping for a clean outcome . If it was all exposed the project be stopped that came from the horses mouth Shell .
: I am ashamed by the conduct of Shell HR in the Anti Discrimination case. As a company we should honour these issues. The mentioned HR rep (Van Barlingen) in the article did much more damage to Shell's reputation by her cold reply and non-action. I truly hope that senior HR management will overrule this decision and decide in favour of Mr Gatti.
: Mr Donovan are you aware that a one thousand euro reward is on offer in Mayo for the name of the supplier of large amounts of alcohol to local Garda on behalf of Roadbridge Shell. REPLY BY JOHN DONOVAN: I have seen the various allegations and comments posted here, but no evidence. If anyone has any evidence to support these allegations, please sent it to me: john@shellnews.net
: Still criminal offence to bribe Gardai Rb who supplied it? next you will say you didn't pay for home improvements or will you ?
: Roadbridge supplied no booze to Garda on Corrib others supplied it Roadbridge were told to pay for it get your facts right jp
: Corrib Project comments from G Hamilton not correct Roadbridge Shell main contractor supplied large amounts of booze to police protecting the project now the press have a hold of the story and panic has set in....oh what a tangled web we weave when first ...etc ect
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