Posts Tagged ‘Whale’

By Pierre Bertrand | December 22, 2011 2:07 AM GMT

Alaskan environmentalists are sounding the alarm bells this week, responding to two major oil industry victories in a state that has been a recurring flash point between environmental groups, legislators and the giants of petroleum exploration.

The latest news to stir the seas came Monday, when ConocoPhillips reported it will have access to the Alaskan National Petroleum Reserve. That followed Royal Dutch Shell’s announcement last Friday that its plan to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea was conditionally approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. read more

• AAP
• From: Herald Sun
• July 08, 2011 7:47PM

Drilling is planned near heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef.

CONSERVATIONISTS say they may appeal a Government decision to allow Shell to drill near the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef.

The Department of Environment said Shell could drill the Palta-1 exploration well, about 50km west of the Ningaloo Marine Park border, if it abided by conditions, including taking measures to avoid significant impacts on threatened species and migratory creatures such as whales.

The controversial decision has sparked outrage among conservationists, including The Wilderness Society, the World Wildlife Fund and the Greens. read more

The multi-billion-dollar project, led by Royal Dutch Shell, has also been accused of inflicting large-scale damage on Sakhalin’s ecosystem, including illegal deforestation, the dumping of toxic waste, and soil erosion.

The construction of a third oil platform for the Shell-led Sakhalin II energy project may threaten a critically endangered population of gray whales off Russia’s eastern coast, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Monday.

The company, which already has two platforms in the Russian Far East, announced in December its plans to build another one near the crucial feeding habitat of the gray whale population.

“The construction and operation of an additional off-shore platform could have numerous negative impacts on the whales, potentially disrupting feeding behavior and increasing the chance of fatal ship strikes,” WWF said in a statement. “Also, a third platform heightens the risk of an environmentally catastrophic oil spill in this sensitive habitat.” read more

Oil and gas exploration by energy giants Exxon, BP and Rosneft is seriously threatening one of the world’s most critically endangered whales, according to a panel of top scientists in a new report. The Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP), composed of 11 scientists and representatives from Shell and Sakahlin Energy...

After battling native communities and environmental groups on Alaska’s North Slope over its offshore drilling plans, Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday that it was scaling back its exploration program in the Beaufort Sea.

"On the one hand, we have Shell and Gazprom at least looking at their plans to see if impacts on whales can be reduced and on the other hand we have BP, Exxon and Rosneft not even telling scientists what their plans are."

Smith said Shell has published detailed plans, tested procedures, trained and demonstrated to regulators and community leaders the oil company's capacity to deal with any conceivable spill event in arctic ice and open arctic water.

When a consortium called Sakhalin Energy, led by Royal Dutch Shell, announced plans to build an oil platform and lay pipelines in the only bay where the whales were known to congregate, these protests proliferated.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court, for example, ruled last November that before the Royal Dutch Shell company can move forward with exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska -- for which it had already paid the U.S. government billions of dollars in leases -- the U.S. Interior Department needs to further study the environmental impacts of drilling on the sea's bowhead whale population and nearby indigenous communities.

Oil and natural gas development off the coast of Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East could have forced endangered whales to leave their habitat in the area, a local WWF spokesperson said on Thursday.

The company's general manager, Pete Slaiby, says the company was disappointed, particularly after investing $2.5 billion over the last three years on leases and operations in the state.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The head of Shell Alaska says the company may appeal a recent federal court ruling that has delayed its plans to drill exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea next year.

The U.S. Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) illegally approved plans by Shell Offshore Inc. to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea off the north coast of Alaska, according to a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' Nov. 20 ruling

Royal Dutch Shell has lost yet another battle to drill the deepest offshore Alaskan well after a federal appeals court ruled government approval of the plan violated environmental laws, writes Sheila McNulty.

During the construction of Sakhalin II, there were several times when urgent action was needed to intervene in the construction of offshore components. Yet ECGD failed to respond to the information provided by NGOs.

Corruption Allegations — Allegations have been made by a whistleblower of inappropriate relationships between SEIC management and its contractors, in particular Starstroi and its subcontractor SU4. (22)

More than a year after the court placed an injunction on Shell's Beaufort Sea drilling, the court has still not ruled on an appeal by the North Slope Borough, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and several environmental organizations against the U.S. Minerals Management Service's approval of Shell's Beaufort Sea exploration plan. The court heard oral arguments in the case last December.

Two years ago, environmentalists teamed up with Alaska Natives who depend on subsistence whaling for their livelihoods and culture. They sued in federal district court in Alaska in July 2007 to stop Shell's exploratory drilling, claiming that it could disturb the whales and interfere with traditional bowhead-whale hunts.

businessGreen.com

Greenwash Champions

Energy giant accused of leaning on authors of independent environmental report to help secure financial backing for controversial oil and gas extraction project

Tom Young, BusinessGreen, 01 Sep 2008

Royal Dutch Shell is facing allegations that it was heavy handed in influencing a supposedly independent environmental report on one of the world’s largest oil and gas extraction projects.

A report in The Observer yesterday cited email evidence that allegedly shows Shell looked to downplay some of the environmental criticism included in the review of the $22bn Sakhalin II Project in Russia – which has now received the bulk of the funding it required for work on the project to begin. read more

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- A scientific panel report released Friday revealed ongoing concerns that the Sakhalin-II oil and gas joint venture hasn't complied with all of recommendations on the protection of the endangered Western Gray Whale.

Prince Andrew, a senior member of the British royal family, may provoke international criticism this week when he visits an oil project which threatens to lead to the extinction of the Western Pacific grey whale, damage environments and destroy fisheries.

So far, neither the legal wrangling, nor the high costs of Arctic operations have daunted Shell and other top oil companies, which are eager to capitalize on soaring prices and projections of unquenchable demand for oil and gas in the coming decades. As the largest new player offshore, Shell has spent nearly $3 billion on leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Both Shell and ConocoPhillips are trying to amass federal permits that would free them to ramp up exploration this summer. Those permits would allow the "incidental harassment" of wildlife during routine industrial activities.

Seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent seismic surveying in the Arctic Ocean, the lawsuit alleges the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act by issuing permits to Shell Oil and British Petroleum prematurely, before completing an Environmental Impact Statement.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, May 5 (Reuters) - A coalition of environmental and Alaska Native groups on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to block the oil industry from conducting seismic tests the groups say will harm whales, walruses and other marine mammals in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, targets permits issued to Shell and BP...

The groups are challenging federal permits that allow Shell Oil Co. and BP PLC to search for oil and gas using powerful acoustic devices that have been shown, at times, to harm a variety of marine animals.

UPI Energy Watch: Shell considers third train at Sakhalin-2

“A huge and diverse array of technical and environmental challenges have surrounded the project, including the need to reroute offshore pipelines to bypass feeding grounds for an endangered species of whale. In July, the Sakhalin Energy partners announced a massive revision to the project budget — to $20 billion from $10 billion — and a delay to first LNG deliveries.”

Wednesday 19 October 2005

Intl. Intelligence

By ANDREA R. MIHAILESCU

United Press International

Shell and Japanese partners Mitsui and Mitsubishi are evaluating options for a third train at their Sakhalin-2 LNG development on Russia’s Pacific Shelf.

Gas to supply a third train could come from a variety of sources, David Greer, deputy chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, the project operating company, said last Thursday during a presentation to an industry gathering in Scotland.

“The issue is getting the additional gas that would be required,” Greer said. “We are looking at deeper prospects in (the) Lunskoye (gas field). We have some space for a third train. It will be a question of earmarking the most appropriate reserves.” But a third train “wouldn’t be available much before 2012,” he said. read more

The Observer (UK): Setback for Shell as whale expert quits over Sakhalin

‘There is much that Shell could do to make this project safer. They know it, we all know it and the world will know it if we, as scientists, take a stand.’: “Steiner’s comments will be a severe blow to Shell which, with Russian energy giant Gazprom, holds a majority stake in this important but very problematic project. This summer Shell said costs on Sakhalin-2 may be double original estimates, ballooning to $20bn.”

Sunday 11 Sept 2005

Nick Mathiason

Sunday September 11, 2005

Royal Dutch Shell’s $20 billion Sakhalin-2 gas and oil project off the east coast of Russia faces a further setback this weekend.

A leading whale expert has resigned in protest from the Independent Scientific Review Panel set up by Shell to monitor the effect the project was having on the endangered western Pacific grey whales.

Earlier this year, following pressure from environmentalists, Shell changed the route of a pipeline which could have led to the extinction of the whales. read more

Royal Dutch Shell News Saturday, 26 February 2005

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: SEC Has More Questions After 1st Inquiry On Oil Reserves: “The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking additional information from some companies about oil reserves following last year’s initial round of inquiries in the wake of the Royal Dutch/Shell scandal”: “Shell stunned capital markets in January 2004 when it announced it was slashing its reserves by 23% due to huge overbookings in Nigeria, Australia and elsewhere. A subsequent investigation showed executive correspondence about the need to “fool” the market and complaints of “lying about the extent of our reserves issue.”: “The current debate on oil reserves policy focuses in part on the oil industry’s confusion on whether certain assets qualify as reserves. Shell’s problems, Degenhardt said, did not fall into that category because documents showed that executives knew they were breaking the rules. “They knew they were violating the commission’s guidelines,” Degenhardt said. “That was not a case of them not knowing what the guidelines are.” (ShellNews.net) Posted 26 Feb 05 read more

Reuters: Shell-Led Russia Venture Vows to Protect Rare Whales

“It is the most comprehensive and largest whale project funded solely by industry for whales anywhere in the world,”

Fri 13 August, 2004 09:36

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Royal Dutch/Shell -led group developing oil and gas fields in the Russian far east moved to assure worried ecologists on Friday it is doing all it can to protect rare gray whales living in the coastal waters.

Green activists have accused the oil major of endangering the future of the marine mammals by developing the oil-rich shelf near the whales’ only remaining summer feeding and migrating habitat just off Sakhalin Island.

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., the operator of the multi-billion dollar Sakhalin-2 project, said it and its partners would spend more than $2 million this year to monitor and protect the animals. read more

Financial Times: Shell reschedules work to help whales

By Clay Harris
Published: May 3 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 3 2004 5:00