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August 16th, 2012:

Groups call for study of Arctic Ocean corals

By Dan Joling on August 16, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two environmental groups say cold-water corals discovered near a proposed Shell Oil drilling site in the Chukchi Sea deserve additional review, but the company contends they have been studied and are not threatened.

Greenpeace USA and the Center for Biological Diversity in a letter Thursday called on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to block drilling until the department conducts a supplemental environmental review of potential damage to the corals.

Shell hopes to drill at least one exploratory well this year during the summer open water season. Environmental groups have strongly opposed drilling, claiming too little is known about the Arctic ecosystem and that petroleum companies have not demonstrated they can clean up a spill in ice-choked waters. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

New evidence of Shell’s covert surveillance operations

News Release – Issued by Shell to Sea – Thursday, 16th August, 2012

NEW EVIDENCE OF SHELL’S COVERT SURVEILLANCE EMERGES

— Scans of two IRMS notebooks sent to Shell to Sea —

This week Shell to Sea received further evidence of the surveillance operation that has been mounted by private security firm IRMS against campaigners opposed to the Corrib Gas project. The evidence consists of scans of pages from two IRMS notebooks that contain notes taken by IRMS personnel between April and June 2010. These scans of the notebooks can be viewed here: http://www.shelltosea.com/content/irms-notebooks-2010

Among the notes made was one which stated “VU Covert Camera Not in Box I-RMS 10” and also how the security went on the 5th June 2010 (while a gathering was taking place at Rossport Solidarity Camp) to “gather intel” and to take “Pics and names if possible”. The names of three campaigners are noted in one of the books. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Arctic drilling: Shell’s spill-containment barge was once for the birds

Royal Dutch Shell’s quest to open the U.S. Arctic Ocean to oil drilling, an undertaking that’s involved years of preparation and cost more than $4.5 billion, hinges on an old icebreaking barge that sat idle so long it literally went to the birds.

The Arctic Challenger, the troubled centerpiece of Shell’s oil-spill response plan, features a remarkable past — once glorious and, well, not so glorious.

At one point, hundreds of Caspian terns, gulls, cormorants, pelicans, ravens, crows and even an owl turned the 300-foot barge into a giant’s bird nest, coating the deck with bird dung and other gunk. That was in California’s Long Beach Harbor in 2007, where the downtrodden vessel became a bit of a media celebrity as wildlife regulators raced to save the protected terns and their chicks. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shareholder in Corrib project, Vermilion, has €10m loss at Irish arm

By John Mulligan

Thursday August 16 2012

THE Irish arm of Canadian resources firm Vermilion Energy, which is a shareholder in the Corrib gas project, recorded a €10.5m loss last year. That compared with a €27.1m profit a year earlier.

The large disparity between the two figures — revealed in the firm’s latest filed accounts — is due to the reversal in 2010 of a previously recorded €38.7m impairment, which inflated its profits that year. Without it, it had posted an €11.6m loss. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.