Professor Richard Steiner (University of Alaska, ret.), a marine scientist and oil spill expert from Alaska who has worked on oil spills in the Niger Delta for many years, says the 2018 Aghoro spill is yet another tragic example of Shell’s reckless treatment of the Niger Delta environment and people. 

Scientists Call for Shell’s Immediate Response to Large Oil Spill from Trans-Ramos Pipeline in Niger Delta, Nigeria

Monday August 6, 2018

After more than 50 years of continuous oil spills into Nigeria’s Niger Delta, Shell oil recently caused yet another large oil spill, this time in and around the village of Aghoro, Bayelsa State (Niger Delta).  

On Thursday, May 17, 2018 (although some reports state the spill began much earlier, on April 24, 2018), the Aghoro community experienced a significant oil spill due to a mechanical failure in Shell’s 24” Trans-Ramos Pipeline across Bayelsa State.  

Dr. Ebikeme Festus Odubo, an Environmental Consultant and a Regulator in the United States, who also is from Aghoro Community, recently visited the spill site to examine the spill’s effects first hand.  “The impact of the ecological devastation from this oil spill on the community, its citizens, and our way of life is tremendous.  This tranquil community of fisherman, farmers and people who, for centuries, have relied upon our natural resources for life-sustaining purposes will be changed forever,” stated Dr. Odubo. read more

By Richard Steiner: Professor and conservation biologist, Oasis Earth (www.oasis-earth.com): 10 MARCH 2016

The Niger Delta’s legendary “blood oil” disaster has persisted for decades, and is now deepening. Oil in the Delta fuels a dangerous mix of environmental devastation, a violent militancy that has killed thousands, human rights abuses, corporate greed and exploitation, epidemic corruption, massive oil theft, sabotage, repression, poverty, anger and despair. It is time to put an end to this ongoing atrocity, once and for all.

The 30,000 square mile Niger Delta — including rich coastal waters, islands, mangroves swamps, and rainforests — was once one of the most productive and diverse ecological habitats on Earth. But today, after 60 years of oil extraction, the region’s environment and society are devastated — a textbook example of the “oil curse.“

The Delta is arguably the most severely oil-damaged environment anywhere in the world. A decade ago, our team of scientists conducting an oil damage assessment in the Delta estimated that each year, some 250,000 barrels (10 million gallons) of oil spill there, an amount comparable to that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska — each year for 50 years. Oil operations have also caused extensive habitat degradation from road building, forest clearing, dredging and filling, thousands miles of pipelines, and chronic pollution from gas flaring and drilling wastes. read more

Extract from an article by Professor Richard Steiner published 25 July 2014 by The Arctic Sounder

Already suffering extreme effects of climate change, drilling in the Arctic Ocean would make matters worse by adding significant industrial disturbance, including platforms, pipelines, tankers, ports, ship and air traffic, underwater noise, suspended sediment, and of course oil spills with no hope of cleanup. The area’s remoteness, severe weather and icy seas make drilling here a high-risk, unacceptable gamble.

Just ask Shell Oil. In perhaps the most intensely scrutinized offshore drilling project in history, Shell’s calamitous 2012 Arctic drilling effort off Alaska displayed arrogance, incompetence, and a reckless disregard for the risks involved. read more

FROM PROFESSOR RICK STEINER: I wanted you to have two letters sent by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in the past few days regarding the horrible business practices of Shell in the Niger Delta…

From: Richard Steiner <richard.g.steiner@gmail.com>
Subject: MOSOP letters re: Shell in Nigeria
Date: 17 September 2013 18:47:38 GMT+01:00
To: John Donovan <john@shellnews.net>

Dear John,

I wanted you to have two letters sent by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in the past few days regarding the horrible business practices of Shell in the Niger Delta, as well the unwitting support to these damaging corporate behavior by an international environmental organization, IUCN. read more

Attached is my preliminary critique of the Shell-IUCN Niger Delta Panel report, which was just released this week.  You can see I am very critical of the entire process, as yet anther delay tactic by Shell. 

EMAIL RECEIVED FROM PROFESSOR RICHARD STEINER, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Dear John,

I trust you are well.  Attached is my preliminary critique of the Shell-IUCN Niger Delta Panel report, which was just released this week.  You can see I am very critical of the entire process, as yet anther delay tactic by Shell.  I can send you the Shell-IUCN report if you wish as well, just let me know.

Feel free to post this, or circulate however you wish.

Regards,
 
Rick Steiner, Professor
Oasis Earth
Anchorage, Alaska
www.oasis-earth.com

IUCN-­‐Niger Delta Panel final report – Preliminary Comments/Critique read more

FROM OUR SEPT 2005 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: ‘Clever rascals’: blast for Shell on project near whale grounds

“In his resignation letter to the chief executive of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, Professor Richard Steiner of the University of Alaska marine advisory programme urged other members of the scientific panel to “opt out of this project”, describing Shell as “clever, stubborn rascals”.

Sunday 11 September 2005

By Jonathan Brown in Siberia

The chairman of an eminent scientific panel appointed to oversee Shell’s controversial gas development in the far-eastern Russian island of Sakhalin has resigned, accusing the oil giant of being “clever, stubborn rascals”.

The embattled company will return to court in Sakhalin tomorrow as environmental campaigners mount a last-ditch effort to stop the Anglo-Dutch giant from completing the world’s most expensive oil and gas project. read more

Press Release

For Immediate Release:  August 30, 2012

Contact:  Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337

Lawsuit for Release of Key Arctic Offshore Safety Data

Testing Results for New Blowout Capping System Sought

“Crucial” safety data on response to an offshore oil rig blowout in icy Arctic waters has not been released as required by law, according to a federal suit filed today by PEER.  The unreleased testing data would shed some light on whether there could be a repeat of the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico from the first wells to be drilled this summer on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf. read more

COMPASS: Other points of view

By RICK STEINER

Published: July 16th, 2012 07:03 PM
Last Modified: July 16th, 2012 07:03 PM

After years of complaining that the environmental community, North Slope residents and the Obama administration are delaying its Arctic Ocean drilling projects, it is now apparent that Shell itself is not ready to drill.

Its oil spill response barge still has significant unresolved issues, and Shell recently asked for a variance to its air permit, proposing that it now be allowed to emit several times the amount of hazardous substances already permitted. If it wants a variance to important federal environmental regulations, Shell should have to go through the full public review and comment process prescribed by law. read more

Posted: 07/05/2012 5:51 pm

The Arctic is one of most pristine and unique regions of our planet, but it is now in crisis from two serious threats — climate change and industrialization. As sea ice retreats, the Arctic has become the “wild wild north” — a last frontier for a failed development paradigm that has ravaged much of the rest of the biosphere. And while governments and industry say they will develop the Arctic “responsibly,” their actions so far suggest otherwise. read more

HI John and Alfred —

First of all, your website is wonderful!

And FYI, you may be interested in the attached letter, which I sent to Shell at the Hague and here in Anchorage tonight.  I am trying to pin them down on some commitments prior to their Arctic offshore drilling commences this summer here in Alaska.  Feel free to post, circulate, etc….

Thanks, and keep up your great work on your website!

Rick Steiner, Professor
Oasis Earth
Anchorage, Alaska
907-360-4503
www.oasis-earth.com read more

FROM OUR AUGUST 2005 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: ‘Clever rascals’: blast for Shell on project near whale grounds

“In his resignation letter to the chief executive of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, Professor Richard Steiner of the University of Alaska marine advisory programme urged other members of the scientific panel to “opt out of this project”, describing Shell as “clever, stubborn rascals”.

Sunday 11 September 2005

By Jonathan Brown in Siberia

The chairman of an eminent scientific panel appointed to oversee Shell’s controversial gas development in the far-eastern Russian island of Sakhalin has resigned, accusing the oil giant of being “clever, stubborn rascals”.

The embattled company will return to court in Sakhalin tomorrow as environmental campaigners mount a last-ditch effort to stop the Anglo-Dutch giant from completing the world’s most expensive oil and gas project. 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