By Rob Davies
PUBLISHED: 22:30, 17 September 2012 | UPDATED: 22:30, 17 September 2012
A faulty piece of safety kit has forced Shell to postpone its controversial Arctic drilling programme just days before MPs were due to criticise its ability to respond to an oil spill in the region.
Shell said its ‘containment cap’ – a dome-shaped device that would collect oil and funnel it to a nearby ship in the event of a spill – had been damaged and will not be ready this year.
It comes at a bad time for Shell, as MPs prepare to release a report on whether British oil firms would be able to respond to a major spill in the Arctic. The first volume of the report, published on Thursday, is expected to conclude that companies such as Shell and fellow Arctic explorer Cairn Energy are not fully prepared for a disaster.
Environmental groups have lined up to criticise Shell’s plans, pointing out that if BP’s Macondo spill in the Gulf of Mexico were replicated in the Arctic the freezing conditions would hinder a clean-up.
Shell has also been criticised for rushing tests on its ‘capping stack’, which fits underneath the containment cap and would be used to plug the head of the well in the event of a spill.
The Anglo-Dutch giant will now have to settle for drilling ‘top holes’, the early stages of a well, which it can return to next summer when the sea ice disperses.
Resource-hungry nations and oil supermajors have been attracted to the Arctic due to the vast reserves it holds, which have been made easier to exploit by advances in technology.
A Shell spokesman said: ‘In order to lay a strong foundation for operations in 2013, we will forgo drilling into hydrocarbon zones this year.’
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.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
