It’s only 0.02pc as big as BP’s giant Gulf of Mexico oil leak at the moment.
The Royal Dutch Shell platform Gannett Alpha has leaked 216 tons of oil in to the North Sea, the highest in a decade (REUTERS)
By Rowena Mason 9:50PM BST 16 Aug 2011
But Royal Dutch Shell’s spillage of 1,300 barrels of crude into the North Sea from the Gannet field is still a big headache for the company as it tries to convince regulators it should be allowed to carry out drilling in the Arctic.
In the wake of BP’s disaster last year, Shell has tried to position itself as the solid and dependable one among the oil majors.
However, that image has been increasingly undermined by a series of issues in the North Sea that Glen Caley, Shell’s technical director in Europe, admits have made this a “challenging year”.