Royal Dutch Shell should be investigated for a “series of alarming blunders” in its Arctic drilling campaign, a group of US congressmen said, as salvage workers battled the weather to try to reach the oil major’s grounded drilling rig off Alaska.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major on Friday refused to comment about the long-term future of its controversial Arctic programme, which has so far seen it invest nearly $5bn (£3.1bn) without even drilling into potentially oil-bearing rocks.
The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), which comprises more than 50 Democratic Representatives, called for US authorities to investigate the grounding of the Kulluk rig and a series of other problems that have blighted Shell’s Alaskan operations over the past year.
Salvage teams were yesterday preparing to attempt to regain access to the rig, which ran aground off Sitkalidik Island on New Years’s Eve after being hit by a storm while it was being towed to Seattle for maintenance.
Snow, which was falling yesterday morning in Alaska, could hinder the attempts, a spokesman for the Unified Command managing the incident said.
Salvage visits to the rig earlier in the week revealed water-tight hatches had been breached, and both the service and emergency generators had been damaged, leaving it without power.
The rig is carrying thousands of gallons of diesel, lubrication oil and hydraulic fluid but as of yesterday there were no signs of any leaks.
“There is still a lot of work to do to bring a safe conclusion to this incident,” Shell’s incident commandeer Sean Churchfield said on Thursday, adding he was unable to give a timetable for moving the rig because plans were “unclear”.
The US Coast Guard has begun investigating the incident but the SEEC called for a wider joint investigation by the US Department of the Interior and US Coast Guard.
“The recent grounding of Shell’s Kulluk oil rig amplifies the risks of drilling in the Arctic,” it said.
“This is the latest in a series of alarming blunders, including the near grounding of another of Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs, the 47-year-old Noble Discoverer, in Dutch Harbor and the failure of its blowout containment dome, the Arctic Challenger, in lake-like conditions.
SEEC Members believe these serious incidents warrant thorough investigation.”
Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace’s Arctic campaign, said: “This latest incident has destroyed any lingering notion of Shell’s credibility.” Shell declined to respond to the criticisms.
telegraph.co.uk
The Anglo-Dutch oil major on Friday refused to comment about the long-term future of its controversial Arctic programme, which has so far seen it invest nearly $5bn (£3.1bn) without even drilling into potentially oil-bearing rocks.
The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), which comprises more than 50 Democratic Representatives, called for US authorities to investigate the grounding of the Kulluk rig and a series of other problems that have blighted Shell’s Alaskan operations over the past year.
Salvage teams were yesterday preparing to attempt to regain access to the rig, which ran aground off Sitkalidik Island on New Years’s Eve after being hit by a storm while it was being towed to Seattle for maintenance.
Snow, which was falling yesterday morning in Alaska, could hinder the attempts, a spokesman for the Unified Command managing the incident said.
Salvage visits to the rig earlier in the week revealed water-tight hatches had been breached, and both the service and emergency generators had been damaged, leaving it without power.
The rig is carrying thousands of gallons of diesel, lubrication oil and hydraulic fluid but as of yesterday there were no signs of any leaks.
“There is still a lot of work to do to bring a safe conclusion to this incident,” Shell’s incident commandeer Sean Churchfield said on Thursday, adding he was unable to give a timetable for moving the rig because plans were “unclear”.
The US Coast Guard has begun investigating the incident but the SEEC called for a wider joint investigation by the US Department of the Interior and US Coast Guard.
“The recent grounding of Shell’s Kulluk oil rig amplifies the risks of drilling in the Arctic,” it said.
“This is the latest in a series of alarming blunders, including the near grounding of another of Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs, the 47-year-old Noble Discoverer, in Dutch Harbor and the failure of its blowout containment dome, the Arctic Challenger, in lake-like conditions.
SEEC Members believe these serious incidents warrant thorough investigation.”
Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace’s Arctic campaign, said: “This latest incident has destroyed any lingering notion of Shell’s credibility.” Shell declined to respond to the criticisms.
telegraph.co.uk
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