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Concern over Shell drilling for oil off Nova Scotia

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Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 07.55.40By Christopher Ives: 21 October 2015

Today’s announcement from CNSOPB really surprised me.
Tuesday, 10/20/2015 – Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board Issues Shell Canada Operations Authorization – Drilling

The 2nd sentence of their 5th paragraph states “The granting of an Operations Authorization does not authorize the use of dispersants in case of a spill.”

Wow. Does this mean toxic Corexit is banned (finally)? What other spill response measures are offered? Will these remove the oil?

From the reports, there is no indication of what changes Shell has made to reduce the time to have the capping stack on site by 8-9 days. If dispersants are no longer authorised then what measures will Shell employ in the event of a spill to protect the coastlines?

Remember the Full City oil spill of July 2009 in Norway? 700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil was spread along 100 miles of the Langesund coast, south of Oslo. For a Macondo-scale spill of 10,000 tons/day oil could be spread along 1,000 miles of Nova Scotia and Maine, the border of some of the world’s richest commercial fisheries.

Shell Canada’s revised schedule indicates that a capping stack could arrive at the wellsite within 12-13 days, which falls short of the U.S. requirement of 24 hours for drilling in waters off Alaska.

A much more rapid capping response is needed, not to mention a way to remove the oil already released into offshore waters.

Our world depends on oil, but couldn’t Industry do a better job of RAPID response & genuine restoration when accidents happen? Do people believe that existing cleanup technology is adequate to meet today’s needs? It would be interesting to poll your readers.

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