In a statement issued in Warri, Delta State, ERA/FoEN said that the appointment of Alison-Madueke, a former Director of Shell, is not only a 'slap' on the face of Nigerians combating oil companies impunity in the Niger Delta, but also rubbishes government's sincerity to bringing about transparency and accountability in the oil sector as espoused in sections of the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
May, 2010:
New Petroleum Minister Represents Shell’s Interest — Rights Group
Shell reports record oil spillages in Nigeria
Oil giant blames thieves and militants for the spilling of nearly 14,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Niger Delta last year
Associated Press
Wednesday 5 May 2010 10.57 BST
Niger Delta residents pass a burning Shell oil pipeline as they evacuate their homes by boat in December 2005. Photograph: George Osodi/AP
Royal Dutch Shell plc spilled nearly 14,000 tons of crude oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta last year, the company has announced, blaming thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
The amount of oil spilled by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was more than double the amount poured into the delta in 2008, and quadruple what was spilled in 2007 highlighting the worsening situation the oil company faces in Nigeria.
Shell Arctic Drilling Plans: Email to Kim Murphy at LA Times
To our astonishment we discovered that a Touch F*** All policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
From: John Donovan <[email protected]>
Date: 6 May 2010 08:53:33 BST
To: [email protected]
Subject: What if an oil spill happened at an Arctic well?
Hello Kim
What your article does not mention is Shell’s notorious “Touch F*** All” safety culture in the North Sea oil rigs, which led to an explosion and deaths on the Brent Bravo platform.
Basically, production and profits were given a higher priority than the safety of offshore employees.
The truth was exposed by Bill Campbell, the HSE Group Auditor of Shell International. This was his self-explanatory letter to UK Members of Parliament which led to a criminal investigation by Scottish Police and legal authorities currently underway. It would be equally relevant to substitute the Arctic Ocean for the North Sea.
What if an oil spill happened at an Arctic well?
May 6, 2010
Reporting from Seattle and Washington
Environmental groups oppose a plan to drill three exploration wells, saying harsh conditions could make an accident much worse.
A coalition of some of the nation’s most influential environmental groups launched an 11th-hour challenge Wednesday to halt the next frontier in offshore drilling the July start of Shell Offshore Inc.’s plan to drill three exploration wells in the Arctic.The groups the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council appealed to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to suspend the drilling plan at least until a cause can be determined for the disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
They warned that the challenges of coping with an oil rig blowout in remote Arctic waters “would far surpass those related to BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion,” which is estimated to be gushing oil into the gulf at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day. They said Shell’s emergency plans are weak and there is a lack of sufficient support crews and emergency equipment to respond quickly to a significant oil spill.
Salazar Urged to Bar Shells Plans For Oil Drilling in Arctic
By Kim Chipman
May 5 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plcs plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean should be halted by the U.S., because the BP Plc incident in the Gulf of Mexico shows that companies arent capable of handling big oil spills, environmental groups said.
Oceana, Pew Environment Group and Audubon Alaska asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today to reconsider approval of Shells plans to drill exploration wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaskas coast. The risk is too great, the groups said in a letter sent to Salazar, citing the incident that has led to the leaking of at least 5,000 barrels of oil a day into waters off the Louisiana and Mississippi coast.
Sex, Lies and Oil Spills
In one incident reported by the Inspector General, agency employees got so drunk at a Shell sponsored golf event that they could not drive home and had to sleep in hotel rooms paid for by Shell.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
Posted: May 5, 2010 10:19 AMA common spin in the right wing coverage of BP’s oil spill is a gleeful suggestion that the gulf blowout is Obama’s Katrina.
In truth, culpability for the disaster can more accurately be laid at the Bush Administration’s doorstep. For eight years, George Bush’s presidency infected the oil industry’s oversight agency, the Minerals Management Service, with a septic culture of corruption from which it has yet to recover. Oil patch alumnae in the White House encouraged agency personnel to engineer weakened safeguards that directly contributed to the gulf catastrophe.
Statement by former Royal Dutch Shell executive John Johns: RDS Forensics has arrived!
At the request of John Johns we have today (11 June 2010) removed information previously printed below (published on 5 May 2010) that was copied from his Royal Dutch Shell Forensics Website.
That website is apparently no longer operational because of pornographic advertising appearing on it over which Mr Johns had no control.
Although initially profusely welcoming the free publicity we generated for his website, Mr Johns objected when I raised legitimate questions about him and his motives. Mr Johns has recently sent several legal notices threatening defamation proceedings and demanding the removal of his copyrighted material which appeared on this web page.
Novel Gripe Site kicks up a stink
Weather Forecast: Tomorrow: Sickly fecal fug around lunchtime, pungent haze deepening towards evening. Vile stink clearing towards dawn, followed by periodic pongs.
As the operator of an index of gripe websites, we receive requests to feature a variety of gripe sites.
We have just added a novel site targeting a Chicken Processing Plant in Ptuj, Slovenia, described as “a leaky rendering plant.”
The gripesite is operated by a Brit determined to cause a stink about a stink.
“Chewed-up chicken shit, boiled bones, ground gizzards, broken beaks, fetid feet and lingering litter: they’re all part of the atmosphere awaiting visitors to the Slovenian destination of Ptuj, unless the town’s only English resident gets his way…”
Shell Is Losing More Oil
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 5, 2010
Sabotage and theft in Niger Delta is causing big jumps in spills
By JAMES HERRON
LONDONRoyal Dutch Shell PLC reported Tuesday big increases in the volume of oil spilled in the Niger Delta in 2008 and 2009, due in large part to damage to pipelines from sabotage and attempts at oil theft.
ReutersA Nigerian Shell worker watches over the well head that spilled crude oil near the Niger Delta village of Oloibiri in Bayelsa state in Nigeria, in June 2004.The figures show how serious an impact armed militants in the Niger Delta have on Shell’s operations in the region and how important it is that the Nigerian government’s push for a truce is successful.
In 2009, 13,900 metric tons of oil were spilled into the Niger Delta as a direct result of sabotage or theft, more than double the 2008 total and four times the 2007 figure, Shell said in its annual sustainability report. Shell also quadrupled its estimate of the amount of oil it spilled in the region due to accidents in 2008 to 8,800 tons following the completion of investigations.
Shell: No Change To Proposed A$3.44B Offer For Arrow Energy
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 4, 2010
SYDNEY (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) said Wednesday there has been no change to it and PetroChina Corp.’s (PTR) A$3.44 billion takeover offer for Arrow Energy Ltd. (AOE.AU).
“There’s been no change to the proposed offer following FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) approval,” a Shell spokesman said.
“Shell continues to look at the impact of the government proposal across all of our Australian investments,” the spokesman said, referring to the resource super profits tax announced this week by the Australian government.
Groups challenge Shell’s Arctic air permits
By DAN JOLING (AP) 5 MAY 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Alaska Native and conservation groups have filed challenges to clean air permits the Environmental Protection Agency granted Shell Oil for drilling exploration wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
“Shell’s drilling threatens to pollute the air we breathe, and EPA needs to regulate the emissions more strongly,” said Caroline Cannon, president of the Native village of Point Hope, in a prepared statement. Point Hope is an Inupiat Eskimo village of 713 on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, 330 miles southwest of Barrow.
Gulf oil leakage could worsen if measures to stop the flow fail, executives say
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 4, 2010; 6:28 PM
Under a worst-case scenario, the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged offshore rig could rise to 40,000 barrels a day — eight times the current estimated leakage — oil-industry executives told members of Congress on Tuesday.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said that the estimate was prompted by a question: What might happen if BP fails to cap the flow of oil from the well or funnel it through a giant steel box and pipe? He said the executives responded that, in a worst-case scenario, that oil could gush out at rates ranging from 10,000 barrels to 60,000 barrels a day, with 40,000 being the most likely in such circumstances.
The limitations of rational man…
One of the problems with having spent most of my career in the oil industry is that it was a far too rational world or liked to think that it was. There were lots of engineers, geologists and accountants to explain to you that managing was about input-process-output. In other words you came to proper business judgments by making sure that you had the right resources (the inputs); handling them properly (the process) and doing the right thing with the products of all this effort (the outputs). Business was a machine and the better designed and oiled and maintained that machine was the better you would do. But my world, the world of brand management, was less certain much less actually. In promoting a brand you are only partly appealing to rational man you are also appealing to emotional man and emotional woman. As David Ogilvy once memorably said The consumer is not a fool she is your wife.
To read more follow the link
Overblown BP sell-off may damage industry
“In Washington, a fresh impetus to pursue alternative forms of energy and a renewed hostility towards Big Oil will not be directed solely at BP.”
May 5, 2010
David Wighton
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy for the families of those who died, for the environment and for local communities.
It is a huge challenge for the company and its chief executive, Tony Hayward. But in cold, cash terms, is it really so bad as to warrant the £20 billion that has been wiped off BPs market value?
The broken well, which is leaking 210,000 gallons of oil a day, could flow for a year and still be dwarfed by earlier incidents. The Ixtoc 1 blowout in Mexicos Bay of Campeche disgorged 140 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico in 1979 before it was finally halted. Even that was a fraction of the 1991 spill when Iraqi forces allowed 36 billion gallons of crude to bleed into the Persian Gulf.
Shell Reports Big Jump in Nigeria Spills
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 4, 2010
By JAMES HERRON
LONDONRoyal Dutch Shell PLC reported Tuesday big increases in the volume of oil spilled in the Niger Delta in 2008 and 2009, due in large part to damage to pipelines from sabotage and attempts at oil theft.
The figures show how serious an impact armed militants in the Niger Delta have on Shell’s operations in the region and how important it is that the Nigerian government’s push for a truce is successful.
In 2009, 13,900 metric tons of oil were spilled into the Niger Delta as a direct result of sabotage or theft, more than double the 2008 total and four times the 2007 figure, Shell said in its annual sustainability report. Shell also quadrupled its estimate of the amount of oil it spilled in the region due to accidents in 2008 to 8,800 tons following the completion of investigations.
Natural gas to make up half Shell upstream output 2012
SINGAPORE, May 4 (Reuters) – Natural gas will account for half of Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) global upstream production by 2012, Chief Executive Peter Voser said on Tuesday.
“We are working with partners around the region to tap its resources and meet the energy needs of Asia,” he said.
“Shell and PetroChina are also working together on projects to try and develop tight gas and shale gas reservoirs in Sichuan,” he said in a speech at the opening of the petrochemical complex in Singapore.
Too soon to say what US govt will do after leak -Shell
REUTERS
SINGAPORE, May 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Tuesday it is too early to draw conclusions on what the U.S. government will do about future Gulf of Mexico drillings as investigations are still ongoing after BP’s drilling rig exploded and ruptured a well two weeks ago.
Chief Executive Peter Voser also said the leak, which is gushing about 5,000 barrels of crude oil per day, will not have much impact on crude prices and production.
“The most important thing right now is to contain the oil spill,” he told a news conference at the opening of its new petrochemical complex in Singapore.
Shell Complex Will Bring To Singapore More Than S$2B Investments From Chemical Cos – PM
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 4, 2010
SINGAPORE Dow Jones)–A Petrochemical complex by Royal Dutch Shell Plc. which recently opened in Singapore is expected to attract more than S$2 billion in investments from major chemical companies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday.
“It will generate more than S$2 billion in fixed asset investments from leading chemical companies,” Lee said at the opening ceremony of the complex.
Lee also said that Shell plans to make Singapore the base for more of its global units. The company’s global headquarters for marine products is already based in the city-state.
Shell CEO: Gulf Oil Spill Industry Event; Policy Impact Unknown
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
4 MAY, 2010
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) reckons the Gulf oil spill is an important event for the whole industry that needs a “technical solution,” but it’s too early to say whether it will have any impact on future U.S. policy, Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said Tuesday at a press conference.
Shell is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico, where, according to some industry experts, crude could be spilling out of a deepwater well at the rate of 25,000 barrels a day after the explosion and sinking of Transocean Ltd.’s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling an exploration well for BP PLC (BP).
Another disaster waiting? Shell Oil running sister rig in Gulf nearly identical to ill-fated Deepwater Horizon
Shell Oil is running a nearly identical “sister rig” in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which may have the same design flaws that led to the current unfolding disaster.
Southern Studies Institute
Despite an army of reporters and officials investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, one item has curiously escaped much attention: Shell Oil is running a nearly identical “sister rig” in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which may have the same design flaws that led to the current unfolding disaster.
The Deepwater Nautilus rig was built just a year after Deepwater Horizon, by the same company implicated in the April 20th disaster. It’s also drilling in the same Mississippi Canyon prospecting area of the Gulf where Horizon, the rig being used by British Petroleum, met its demise.
SHELL PEOPLE ARE NOT FOR SALE
We kindly invite you to visit the following group: SHELL PEOPLE ARE NOT FOR SALE, on facebook…
Dear Mr Alfred,
On behalf of all Shell staff from Africa, I am writing to you to seek your support and guidance to our cause. As you might know from the newspapers, Shell has decided, as part of its new strategy, to exit from All countries in Africa, except South Africa, while maintaining its Upstream business in many countries (Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, and lately Tunisia…).
Many of us are mobilized to stop this discrimination, and we are hoping we can get some support from overseas to help us with our cause.
BP Spill Threatens Gulf of Mexico Oil, Gas Operations
By Asjylyn Loder and Jessica Resnick-Ault
May 3 (Bloomberg) — The growing oil slick fed by an underwater leak in a BP Plc well in the Gulf of Mexico may threaten production, shipping and refining of oil and natural gas in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Those three states account for 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity as of 2009, according to data from the U.S. Energy Departments Energy Information Administration.
Traders are nervous about how fast the slick could grow, and whether it could have a significant effect on oil and natural-gas production, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston.
BP’s Worsening Spill Crisis Undermines CEO’s Reforms
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 3, 2010
By GUY CHAZAN
LONDON Tony Hayward thought he had finally slain all of BP PLC’s demons. Now a new one has reared up, and it’s the size of Puerto Rico.
BP’s chief executive is coming under mounting pressure over the vast spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico, which was caused when a giant drilling rig there caught fire and sank, with the loss of 11 crew members. The oil, still spewing from the well on the ocean floor, threatens to blacken the Louisana shoreline, and BP’s reputation.
Problems with big oil that won’t go away
The Deepwater Horizon spill, which is threatening swaths of the Gulf of Mexico’s coast, again raises questions about how rigorously safety and environmental regulations are enforced
-
- Tim Webb
- The Observer, Sunday 2 May 2010
Washington, 5am, Tuesday: a tired Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, was finally patched on to the conference call. At the other end, a dozen journalists sat around a boardroom table at its plush headquarters in St James’s Square, London and leant in towards the squawkbox. BP had just announced a 135% increase in profits for the first quarter, but all that anyone wanted to discuss was the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
A sombre Hayward, who had spent the weekend co-ordinating the operation to contain the slick off the coast of Louisiana, recognised as much when he began the call: “Clearly a good set of results has been overshadowed by events.”
Slick engulfs oil industry’s sense of optimism
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January there was standing room only at the session on the future of oil. Peter Voser, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, sat alongside the head of the Saudi oil giant Aramco, Khalid al Falih, and the chairman of Total, Thierry Desmarest. In the middle was Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP. The session was so popular, Davos staff had to turn people away at the door.
By Kamal Ahmed
Published: 9:02PM BST 01 May 2010
Mr Hayward spoke about the pressures the industry was under as it struggled to keep up with ever rising demand from the emerging economies. Such was the “supply challenge” companies would have to explore more and more difficult environments from which to gain oil – the lifeblood of markets around the world. A 40pc increase in demand would create the need for 15m barrels per day (bpd) increased production over the next two decades.
BP Seeks Help From Other Oil Companies
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MAY 1, 2010
By GUY CHAZAN
BP PLC has asked for help from rival oil companies to deal with the oil spill rapidly approaching the Louisiana coastline, an admission that the British oil giant is running short of ideas for containing the looming environmental disaster.
The request comes with BP under increasing pressure from U.S. officials, who are ramping up their criticism of the company for failing to contain the slick, which could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst spill in U.S. history.
Some companies have already proffered assistance. BP is implementing an idea suggested by Exxon Mobil Corp. to inject dispersants, a type of chemical capable of dissipating slicks, directly into the oil stream as it emerges from the well. Until now, BP has only been spraying the dispersants onto the oil from above.
Gulf spill could have Alaska repercussions
BACKLASH: State is next in line for drilling in federal waters.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
[email protected]
Published: May 1st, 2010 11:45 PM
Last Modified: May 1st, 2010 11:46 PM
The oil gushing from a Gulf of Mexico oil well has the potential to touch Alaska in many ways.
Alaska is next in line, nationally, for offshore oil development in federal waters — Shell Oil hopes to drill exploration wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas this summer, opening a controversial new frontier for the state’s oil industry.
Investors’ jitters over future offshore oil production could boost Alaska oil prices — it happened Thursday, when the price for Alaska crude jumped by $2.70 to $83.97.
BP Fought Safety Measures at Deepwater Oil Rigs
ABC NEWS: Owner of Louisiana Oil Well Objected to System That Would Have Shut Off Spill
By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Apr. 30, 2010
BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.
One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon’s wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP and Shell ‘not meeting safety standards on North Sea oil rigs’
Health and Safety Executive serves ‘improvement notices’ after sharp rise in accidents
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig ablaze in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
- Terry Macalister and Tim Webb
- guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 May 2010 21.29 BST
BP and other oil companies operating in the North Sea have been warned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that they are failing to operate rigs and other offshore equipment to appropriate standards, documents show.
The “improvement notices” from the offshore regulator come amid speculation that accident statistics covering the past 12 months show a marked increase in problems over a year earlier.
White House response to BP oil spill
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWLerxaa-vc
BPs Response to Oil Spill Lacking, Officials Say
May 1 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc should be doing more to protect coastal areas in the Gulf of Mexico from an oil slick formed after a drilling rig explosion, state and federal officials said.