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December, 2011:

When Shell flushed 100,000 tonnes of Forcados crude into the Sea

“After flushing the lot into the sea, it all disappeared within weeks. Not a trace to be seen… It all was possible because there was a military government suppressing the press and life was good for Shell!”

“Old Nigeria Hand” posting on Shell Blog (A trustworthy source)

The Bonga spill obviously is unforgiveable. A relatively young facility should not leak oil. But the disaster as mentioned by many journalists will be minute. It is light oil and most will evaporate and disappear before hitting the beach.

In 1979 there was a spill of another magnitude: the bottom of tank 6 had dropped out in Forcados. There was 1 meter oil in the terminal and Bert Ockeloen, the General Operations Manager flew over it the next day and stated: I may lose my terminal so break the wall and flush it into the sea. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Chevron, Transocean Face Brazil Indictment Over Oil Leak

December 22, 2011, 11:33 AM EST

By Joe Carroll and Juan Pablo Spinetto

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp., the operator of the Brazilian offshore well that triggered oil leaks, and rig owner Transocean Ltd. will defend executives threatened with criminal indictments in the South American nation.

Chevron learned that Brazil’s federal police intend to indict employees involved in the drilling that led to the Nov. 7 leaks from seafloor fissures near the $3.6 billion Frade development, Kurt Glaubitz, a spokesman for the San Ramon, California-based company, said in a statement late yesterday. Transocean, in a separate statement late yesterday, said it will “vigorously defend the company and its collaborators.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Rush to clean major Shell oil spill off Nigeria

By Sophie Mongalvy (AFP) 22 December 2011

LAGOS — Authorities rushed to prevent one of Nigeria’s worst recent oil spills from reaching the West African nation’s shoreline on Thursday, with production from a major Shell field also shut due to the leak.

Shell, which said the leak has been stopped, has estimated that less than 40,000 barrels of crude have spilled into the sea and was deploying ships with dispersants to attack the slick. Planes were also being mobilised.

It was Nigeria’s worst offshore spill since a 1998 Mobil incident, officials said, though onshore leaks have been estimated at levels far worse since that time in the oil-producing Niger Delta. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

News Shell oil spill off Nigeria likely worst in decade

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press 22 December 2011

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An oil spill near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, a government official said Thursday, as slicks from the Royal Dutch Shell PLC spill approached the country’s southern shoreline.

The slick from Shell’s Bonga field has affected 115 miles (185 kilometers) of ocean near Nigeria’s coast, Peter Idabor, who leads the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, told The Associated Press. Idabor said officials expect the slick to reach beaches by Thursday afternoon. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

New ConocoPhillips and Shell Arctic Oil Permits Raising Alarms

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

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell shuts offshore Nigerian oilfield after leak

Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:55am EST

* “Less than 40,000 barrels of oil” leaked – Shell

* Field produces 10 pct of Nigerian oil exports

* Shell says oil flow now halted

By Emma Farge

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is shutting down its huge 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) Bonga oilfield off the Nigerian coast after a leak occurred while loading a tanker on Tuesday, the firm said in a statement.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major said “less than 40,000 barrels of oil” had leaked into the ocean. The flow of oil had now halted, a spokesman said.

The leak occurred while a tanker was loading oil from Shell’s Bonga facility, about 120 kilometres off the coast of the West African nation, according to the statement. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Shuts Nigeria’s Bonga Field After Leak During Loading

December 21, 2011, 5:39 AM EST

By Eduard Gismatullin

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, shut its 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga field off Nigeria after oil leaked during a tanker loading.

An export line from the field’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel was the likely cause of the leak, estimated at less than 40,000 barrels of crude, Shell said in a statement today. The oil flow has been halted.

“We are sorry this leak has happened,” Mutiu Sunmonu, the company’s Nigerian chairman, said in the statement. “It is important to stress that this was not a well-control incident of any sort, and to make clear that no-one has been injured.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Gulf of Mexico Spill: Oops these sort of things only happen to BP!

John

Oops these sort of things only happen to BP!

Our dear friend Mr Voser will no doubt be miffed that in the Gulf even a well designed to his`Utopian‘ Shell standards can dare to leak.  The report today on your website states that Shell wasn’t involved in the Deepwater Horizon spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico.

But the Deepwater Nautilus rig it is currently using has the exact same design and is considered a “sister” rig of the Deepwater Horizon.

This so called sister rig that Shell is using will by implication have the same design flaws as the Deepwater Horizon. Nothing has been done by the Industry as far as I am aware to remedy this situation. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Supreme Court To Decide If 1789 Law Applies To Shell Today

Daniel Fisher

Daniel Fisher, Forbes Staff

12/20/2011

For nearly 200 years, the Alien Tort Claims Act lay dormant, a one-sentence law passed by the first Congress that gave federal courts jurisdiction to hear any lawsuit brought by “an alien” for torts committed “in violation of the law of nations.” Then around 1980 inventive lawyers rediscovered it as a tool for international human-rights enforcement. One judge dubbed the long-neglected law a “legal Lohengrin,” after the knight in the Richard Wagner opera who magically appears in a boat drawn by a swan. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Says U.S. Drilling Rig to Stay Shut for Weeks After Leak

By Eduard Gismatullin – Dec 20, 2011 3:23 PM GMT

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s largest oil company, said a rig will stay shut for weeks after spilling 319 barrels of drilling fluid into the Gulf of Mexico.

The company suspended work at the Appomattox discovery, which leaked synthetic and biodegradable drilling mud from a booster line, Shell said. The leak was isolated, stopped and remedial action has been approved by the regulator, it said. The company temporarily abandoned the well. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Reports Gulf Drilling Spill

By DANIEL GILBERT

HOUSTON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday said it had temporarily abandoned a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico after it spilled 319 barrels of fluid used to drill the well.

A company spokeswoman said the leak on its Deepwater Nautilus rig occurred Sunday while drilling the well in about 7,200 feet of water southeast of New Orleans.

Shell has stopped the leak and will temporarily abandon the well while it makes repairs, said spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh. She didn’t have an estimate of how long the repairs would take. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Spill reported at Shell Gulf of Mexico drill site

HOUSTON | Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:13pm EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard was investigating a 13,000-gallon spill from an oil rig leased to Shell, operating about 26 miles southeast of last year’s BP Plc Macondo oil well disaster, a Coast Guard spokesman said on Monday.

The spill of either drilling fluid or oil mixed with drilling fluid was reported Sunday by Transocean Ltd’s Deepwater Nautilus rig, which was drilling a well at Shell’s Appomattox discovery. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Royal Dutch Shell shuts rig after leak of drilling fluid

First Posted: December 19, 2011

NEW ORLEANS — Royal Dutch Shell says it has shut down an offshore drilling rig off the coast of Alabama following a leak of drilling fluid.

Shell says 319 barrels of the synthetic and biodegradable fluid leaked from a booster line. The Coast Guard says the leak was reported Sunday and that the line was connected to a vessel supplying the drilling fluid.

The Southern Environmental Law Center says the drilling is part of an exploration plan challenged in federal court by several environmental groups. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Lessons of the Deepwater Horizon

A version of this editorial appeared in print on December 19, 2011, on page A28 of the New York edition

The latest investigative report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, released Wednesday, is an important reminder of industry’s past carelessness and a summons to vigilance in the future. It could not have been more timely, coming just as the Interior Department was concluding its first auction of new drilling leases in the gulf since the spill.

The report was prepared by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. It concluded — as had an earlier study by a presidential commission — that the explosion resulted from a series of poor decisions by BP and others, including a major miscalculation involving the ability of the well to withstand sudden increases in pressure. The study criticized both the industry and federal regulators for “misplaced trust” in the ability of blowout preventers to seal off wells in an emergency, and called for industry to redesign these devices to make them more reliable in the future. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell gets off on a technicality after U.S. jury finds Shell committed fraud

By John Donovan

Printed below is a Texas Supreme Court judgement dated 16 December 2011 overturning, on a technicality, a jury finding that Shell Oil Company knowingly committed royalty payment fraud. Texas Supreme Court Judges have taken the view that the plaintiff family should have discovered the fraud. They concluded that the “alleged” fraud “could” have been discovered by the family through the exercise of reasonable diligence. The reversal appears to disregard the decision of the jury that Shell deliberately committed fraud. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Integrity of Wikipedia corporate articles corrupted by editing scandal

On 12th October 2010, I published an article containing the warning: “…it is only a matter of time before the culture of subterfuge and deception at Wikipedia results in a scandal.” My prediction has come to pass…

By John Donovan

Jimmy Wales is to be congratulated on being the joint founder of Wikipedia and for the non-profit basis on which the organization is operated. He is obviously a man of integrity deserving of the highest praise.

Unfortunately, many contributors to Wikipedia do not share his high ethical standards and take full advantage of the fact that it is possible to edit Wikipedia corporate articles completely anonymously for financial reward, removing or suppressing negative information. Parties can completely hide any trace of their identity and motive, even their ISP addresses. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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