Shell to Sea spokeswoman Maura Harrington said “Shell, despite all their talk of being ‘good neighbours’, said nothing to anyone” until the radio station was alerted.
Shell said the accidental severing of a gas pipe at its plant at Ballinaboy, Co Mayo, posed “no danger to the environment” and the company was investigating the circumstances. File photograph: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland.
Campaigners criticise company for failing to make incident public
Lorna Siggins Sat April 20, 2013
Shell E&P Ireland has said it is conducting an internal investigation, following the inadvertent cutting of a gas pipe at the Corrib gas terminal earlier this month.
The incident, which occurred during work on water pipes at the terminal site in north Mayo, resulted in nitrogen being released into the atmosphere.
As a precaution, all nitrogen was “vented off”, according to the company. The Ballinaboy terminal built to refine gas from the Corrib gas field is not yet active, as work is still continuing on the last section of the project – the onshore pipeline.