Shell misses target for cutting oil spills

[Robbien]

Royal Dutch Shell today blamed attacks by militants on pipelines in Nigeria and hurricanes in the United States for missing its goal of reducing oil spills in 2005.

Around 340 tonnes of oil flooded land in Nigeria during December after a key pipeline was blown up by rebels – an event that marked a series of attacks on assets owned by Shell in the country.

Shell added that spillages totalling 3,900 tonnes of oil took place in the United States last summer because of damage caused by two major hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

The largest spills were at Nairn and Pilottown in Louisiana in September, prompting Shell to rethink designs and strengthen equipment so they can withstand hurricanes in future.

Unveiling its Sustainability Report for last year, Shell said spillages totalled 9,000 tonnes compared with 6,100 tonnes in 2004.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=182112700&p=y8zyy34x6

[DrDebug]

1. LMFAO. The insurgences did it

Maybe there wouldn't be that many insurgences in Nigeria if Shell didn't mix politics and economics :sarcasm:

Since the Nigerian government hanged 9 environmental activists in 1995 for speaking out against exploitation by Royal Dutch/Shell and the Nigeria government, outrage has exploded worldwide. The tribunal which convicted the men was part of a joint effort by the government and Shell to suppress a growing movement among the Ogoni people: a movement for environmental justice, for recognition of their human rights and for economic justice. Shell has brought extreme, irreparable environmental devastation to Ogoniland. Please note that although the case of the Ogoni is the best known of communities in Shell's areas of operation, dozens of other groups suffer the same exploitation of resources and injustices.

(...)

Since Shell began drilling oil in Ogoniland in 1958, the people of Ogoniland have had pipelines built across their farmlands and in front of their homes, suffered endemic oil leaks from these very pipelines, been forced to live with the constant flaring of gas. This environmental assault has smothered land with oil, killed masses of fish and other aquatic life, and introduced devastating acid rain to the land of the Ogoni4. For the Ogoni, a people dependent upon farming and fishing, the poisoning of the land and water has had devastating economic and health consequences5. Shell claims to clean up its oil spills, but such "clean-ups" consist of techniques like burning the crude which results in a permanent layer of crusted oil meters thick and scooping oil into holes dug in surrounding earth (a temporary solution at best, with the oil flowing out of the hole during the Niger Delta's frequent bouts of rain) 6.

(...)

http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/issues.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. Mamma Nature has been telling us for Centuries not to live in flood plains

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.
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Hurricane and Tornado routes, coastal waters, etc., etc. -

But we is HOOMANS

We's smarter than Momma Nature, right?

Wrong

she will always win