Royal Dutch Shell Group .com Rotating Header Image

August 18th, 2011:

Shell vows to improve inspections!!!!!

Shell said it needed to improve its inspection policies. “We’re making every effort to improve our inspection program and revisit our maintenance priorities,” Cayley added.

Spilled crude oil from the Gannet field, co-owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp., floats off the coast of Scotland. The platform will be shut down for routine maintenance on Thursday.

Photograph by: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP, GETTY IMAGES, Reuters 18 August 2011

Major oil producer Royal Dutch Shell said a large volume of oil remained in its leaking pipeline, raising the possibility that Britain’s worst oil spill for a decade could worsen, but said the extra amount would only seep out in a worst-case scenario.

Oil leaked into the sea off the coast of Scotland for a seventh day on Wednesday as Shell said it was planning extensive activity, including the deployment of divers, to completely stop the flow of oil.

The company told reporters on a conference call its estimate of the total volume of oil that had leaked remained at just over 218 tonnes, in line with a figure given on Monday, as oil continued to trickle out at the rate of one barrel a day. Up to 660 tonnes could remain in the pipeline at the Gannet field, however, said Glen Cayley, technical director of Shell’s European exploration and production activities, and the company was focusing on how to deal with it. 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.

No wonder bits are falling off the Shell Brent Platforms

EMAIL RECEIVED

John,

No wonder bits are falling off the Brents.

I’m an ex Shell employee with no axe to grind but I’m also fat and wouldn’t trust those gratings to hold me.

Thanks

(name and email address supplied)

Gratings_-_Destructive_Testing(1)

Related comment by a retired Shell North Sea Platform manager:

John,

This short video demonstrates severe corrosion of a stair tread. They are in a horrendous condition and a disgrace not only to the scheduled maintenance programme but to the respective OIM’s, Safety reps and the HSE Inspectors.    Pay particular attention near the end of the clip where the leading edge of the stair tread is fitted with an anti skid strip to assist in the prevention of workers slipping in the stair treads.  Notice how badly worn it is, should have been replaced a long time ago! 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.

No to Arctic Drilling

By FRANCES G. BEINECKE

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 18, 2011

ABOUT 55,000 gallons of oil have escaped into the North Sea since last week from a leaky pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell, about 100 miles off Scotland.

Last year, Americans watched in mounting fury as the oil industry and the federal government struggled for five disastrous months to contain the much larger BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now imagine the increased danger and difficulty of trying to cope with a similar debacle off Alaska’s northern coast, where waters are sealed by pack ice for eight months of each year, gales roil fog-shrouded seas with waves up to 20 feet high and the temperature, combined with the wind chill, feels like 10 degrees below zero by late September. 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.

Shell Defends Its Efforts to Stanch North Sea Spill

Shell has been trying to stop a leaking line from its Gannet Alpha platform for the last seven days amid mounting public criticism of its perceived lack of transparency about the spill.

AUGUST 18, 2011

By ALEXIS FLYNN

LONDON—Some 660 tons of oil are still inside a leaking Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline in the U.K. North Sea, the Anglo-Dutch energy producer said Wednesday, explaining that efforts to stop the relatively light flow of crude are taking considerable time in order to minimize further leakage.

Shell has been trying to stop a leaking line from its Gannet Alpha platform for the last seven days amid mounting public criticism of its perceived lack of transparency about the spill. 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.

Oil spill off Scotland ‘could worsen’

By Richard Hall

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Hundreds of tons of oil could still be inside an offshore pipeline which has been leaking for a week off the Scottish coast, raising the possibility that Britain’s worst oil spill for a decade could worsen.

As oil giant Royal Dutch Shell continues to try to stem the flow on the seabed about 112 miles east of Aberdeen, the company said there is still a risk an estimated 660 tons of oil that remain in the pipeline could leak out.

“We are talking about hundreds of tons of additional oil in the pipeline that we need to preserve and keep there,” Shell technical director Glen Cayley said. 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.