Years before the Gulf of Mexico became witness to the nightmare scenario of an unstoppable volcano of crude oil gushing from an unplugged oil well deep beneath the ocean, both the oil industry and the federal agency charged with monitoring seabed drilling off America's coasts knew the last-ditch "failsafe" technology intended to prevent just this sort of catastrophe might not work.
May, 2010:
Blowout preventer problems were known as early as 2002
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com,
are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Gulf oil spill: similar disaster could occur in Arctic later this year
Daily Telegraph
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has heightened fears of a similar disaster occurring off America’s Arctic coast, where Shell is due to begin exploratory drilling later this year.
Smoke rises from a controlled burn in the Gulf of Mexico by BP Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 6:30PM BST 23 May 2010
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the Anglo-Dutch firms plan’s to drill off the coast of Alaska.
Activists have claimed that the remote nature of the proposed drilling site, sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds would be formidable obstacles to any potential clean-up operation.
The Alaska Wilderness League said in a statement that it would be almost impossible to mount the kind of clean-up witnessed in the Gulf of Mexico, describing the Arctic as one of the “most remote and extreme environments on Earth”.
Corrib terminal to test gas from grid
Shell declined to give a predicted date for full production pending the outcome of the planning application. However, it is unlikely full production will start before next year.
Shell Oil Unable To Assure Safety Of Arctic Drilling
FOX BUSINESS
Shell Oil Unable To Assure Safety Of Arctic Drilling; Proposal Is “Imagineering, Not Engineering,” Says Former Shell Official
May 21, 2010 (PRWeb.com via COMTEX) —-Two engineers with extensive experience in the oil industry said on Capitol Hill today that Shell Oil’s plans to begin drilling off the coast of Alaska in less than six weeks are fraught with risks that have not been adequately addressed by the company.
Dr. Robert Bea, a former Shell official, and Susan Harvey, who previously worked for British Petroleum, expressed serious concerns about Shell’s drilling plans, noting that a spill in the Arctic could not be cleaned up. Those same concerns were detailed in a twelve-page letter (http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2010/WWFBinaryitem16362.pdf) that World Wildlife Fund submitted today to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, analyzing Shell’s proposed safety procedures for drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
Can America trust Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean?
By John Donovan
The Shell brand is so well known in the USA that most Americans probably believe that it is as American as apple pie, rather than what it actually is – a foreign owned company: Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
In the wake of the still unfolding BP/Transocean catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell is currently trying to reassure the US government and other parties, including environmentalists, that they can all trust Shell to commence drilling for oil in offshore Alaska. Shell, which has already invested billions of dollars in obtaining the drilling rights, has recently released information about its plans to tackle any consequential oil spills.
When Winston Churchill accused Shell of secret oil price rigging
Comment by Shell director at AGM:
We next come to a sneer by Mr. Winston Churchill which is unworthy of him.
By John Donovan
I have been described by Reuters as “A prominent critic of Royal Dutch Shell“.
I had no idea that I shared this distinction with a great man, Winston Churchill no less.
During a pre-first World War speech in the House of Commons, Churchill, in his then capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty made an attack on Shell, accusing the company of secret oil price rigging.
Extracts from pages 161/162/163 “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin.
On June 17, 1914, Churchill rose in the House of Commons to introduce a historic measure. The bill he proposed had two essential elements: First, the government would invest £2.2 million in Anglo-Persian, acquiring in turn 51 percent of the stock.
AP INVESTIGATION: Oil self-regulates around globe
Across the globe, industry-driven regulation is the norm, not the exception - and critics are calling for a re-examination of a system that puts crucial safety decisions into the hands of corporations motivated by profit.
AT&T Tapped to Provide Shell with Unified International Communications Service
This initiative is a three-year, $90 million deployment that is part and parcel of the estimated $1.6bn global strategic sourcing agreement inked by Shell and AT&T in 2008, during which Shell awarded AT&T with a contract to manage most of its telecom and IT infrastructure services.
BP accused of cover-up
Matthew Bigg and Jeremy Pelofsky: Thu May 20, 2010 7.36pm EDT
(Reuters) – The U.S. government Thursday accused energy giant BP of falling short in the information it has provided about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, in a clear sign of Washington’s growing frustration with BP’s handling of the spiraling environmental disaster.
“In responding to this oil spill, it is critical that all actions be conducted in a transparent manner, with all data and information related to the spill readily available to the United States government and the American people,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a letter.
Shell trims exposure to Iran crude – sources
A view of a Shell oil both at the 11th international oil, gas and petrochemical exhibition in Tehran April 20, 2006. Credit: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi
(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell and other oil companies are taking less Iranian crude because of poor economics and the difficulty of making financial transactions with Tehran, industry sources said on Thursday.
The lower sales coincide with a build-up of Iranian crude in storage and a draft U.N. resolution to expand sanctions against the Islamic Republic — the world’s fifth largest oil exporter — over its nuclear work.
Wikipedia: Royaldutchshellplc.com 20 MAY 2010
Replica of the Wikipedia article: Royaldutchshellplc.com
20 MAY 2010 VERSION
The article text for the Wikipedia article royaldutchshellplc.com is displayed below for the above-indicated date – the content of which may be confirmed by Wikipedia records
Royaldutchshellplc.com
| 250px
Homepage screenshot taken April 14, 2009
|
|
|
Type of site
|
Gripe site |
|---|---|
| Available in | Originates in English; translation available |
| Owner | Alfred and John Donovan |
| Created by | John Donovan |
| Revenue | None |
| URL | http://royaldutchshellplc.com/ |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Not required |
royaldutchshellplc.com is a Royal Dutch Shell gripe site and blog operated by Alfred and John Donovan, who engaged in several marketing campaigns with Shell during the 1980s and early 1990s. The father and son duo believe Shell violated intellectual property agreements and filed several law suits against Shell prior to starting several websites critical of Shell, including royaldutchshellplc.com. The site has been oft quoted in news sources and is known for its activities as an Internet leak and forum for Shell whistleblowers.
Arctic Drilling Proposal Advanced Amid Concern
BP’s Endicott oil and gas facility at the edge of the Beaufort Sea. Shell Oil wants to drill dozens of miles offshore in federal waters.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
A version of this article appeared in print on May 20, 2010, on page A18 of the New York edition
A proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean as early as this summer received initial permits from the Minerals Management Service office in Alaska at the same time federal auditors were questioning the office about its environmental review process.
Shell’s treachery in Iran
AN EMAIL TO BILL O’REILLY AT FOX NEWS
Hello Bill
In March 2007, I sent you an email on the subject of Shells treachery in Iran.
Two years later, as a result of Shell internal documents obtained from the oil giant under UK freedom of information laws, I discovered that my email to you had sent Shell media and its lawyers into a frenzy.
HOW SHELL PLANNED TO DECEIVE BILL OREILLY OF FOX NEWS
Today, The Wall Street Journal published an article – “Oil Trade With Iran Thrives, Discreetly“.
Oil Trade With Iran Thrives, Discreetly
“One tanker industry executive speculated that Shell might want to disguise its Iranian purchases so as not to suggest that the gasoline it sells in the U.S. is refined from Iranian oil, which would violate U.S. law.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By STEVE STECKLOW, SPENCER SWARTZ and MARGARET COKER
FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates. An oil tanker named Front Page, chartered by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, left this port on March 17 and reported it was going to another U.A.E. port, then on to Saudi Arabia, ship-tracking data show.
But the tracking information reveals that Front Page also made an unreported stopto the coast of Iran. There it loaded Iranian oil, according to records obtained by oil traders and shipping sources.
The incident, some oil-industry experts say, is an example of how some companies these days are hiding their business dealings with Iran, even when they are perfectly legal because they aren’t subject to any sanctions.
Shell Hoax Puts Spotlight on Big Oil’s Mess in Nigeria
(May 19) — If it seemed too good to be true when Shell Oil proclaimed this week that it was putting an end to its offshore drilling operations in Nigeria, that’s because it was.
Monday’s announcement turns out to have been an elaborate hoax, put on by an ad hoc activist group calling itself the Nigerian Justice League.
Established solely for the sake of this con, the group put out a lengthy press release including details of the faux “Comprehensive Shell Remediation Plan for the Niger Delta,” along with phone numbers supposedly for the company’s media relations department — all under the oil giant’s iconic red-and-yellow logo.
The text of the release can be found on the group’s fake Shell website.
Shell is the largest oil producer in Nigeria, a country that holds one of the worst oil safety records on the planet. According to reports, last year alone the West African nation had 2,000 active spills.
Toxic Living: California Neighbors Sue After Finding Homes Were Built on Oil-Saturated Soil
“The lawsuit, filed in October against Shell, the developer and its subsequent owners, claims among other things that the companies were negligent in their treatment of the site and that they fraudulently concealed chemical hazards on the property.”
Experts Say Homeowners Exposed to Dangerous Levels of Benzene, Methane
By SARAH NETTER
CARSON, Calif. May 19, 2010
The tidy rows of hacienda-style homes in a pretty, well-manicured southern California neighborhood give little indication of the festering chemicals under the soil.
Adolfo Valdes, pictured with his 3-year-old daughter Alexa, no longer lets his daughters play outside after environmental experts found crude oil just feet under his front lawn.
(Sarah Netter/ABC News)
More Photos
Built on top of a long-forgotten crude oil storage site, the 285 homes in Carson’s Carousel neighborhood are now ground zero for an environmental and medical crisis that has pitted current and former homeowners, some of them cancer-stricken, in a massive lawsuit against Shell.
“I’m very angry. I’m angry that this could happen to our family or anyone else’s family,” longtime Carousel homeowner Royalene Fernandez said. “It has definitely ruined our lives and I don’t want it to ruin my kids’ lives or my grandchildren’s.”
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
