UK’s ageing oil rigs are close to collapse, video footage shows
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Sep 13, 2011
This is the frightening reality of oil extraction in the UK North Sea. Video footage and documents leaked to the the Scottish Sunday Express shows that Shell’s oil rigs are ready to collapse. RUSTING RIGS SPARK FEARS OF OIL TRAGEDY By Paula Murray SHOCKING footage has emerged showing the dire state of Britain’s rust- ing oil...
Channel 4 News: Shell North Sea Oil Spill
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Aug 14, 2011
Last night’s Channel 4 News was mostly taken up with a relatively heated debate on the London riots. During the air time left over, science correspondent Tom Clarke gave an overview of Shell’s 100 tonne oil spill in the North Sea. PLATFORM provided some analysis, putting Shell’s oil spill in the context of the daily...
Breaking: Shell Gannet Alpha oil Spill hits North Sea
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Aug 13, 2011
From BBC News last night: Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to stop a leak at one of its North Sea oil platforms. The leak was found near the Gannet Alpha platform, 180 km (113 miles) from Aberdeen, Scotland. The company would not say how much oil may have been spilt...
Wikileaks cables reveal BP cover-up in Azerbaijan
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Dec 23, 2010
New Wikileaks cables about another major offshore gas leak in the Caspian give a rare insight into how BP attempts to control the public narratives when it hits crisis and failure. Writing a book about the company’s Caucasus pipelines, we’ve been all over the region, digging for the truth behind these events. Now the sudden...
BP & Shell offshore failures in North Sea endanger workers
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May 5, 2010
As crude continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico and Tony Hayward can’t work out what he did “to deserve this”, it turns out the company is having problems with offshore operations in the North Sea as well. The British Health & Safety Executive has warned both both BP & Shell that they are failing to...
Alaskan professor stripped of funding for criticising oil companies
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Feb 4, 2010
Internationally recognised marine scientist Rick Steiner was forced to resign his position as professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program in Anchorage. Prof Steiner has played an important role in recent years in raising concerns over oil company, particularly Shell, operations in Sakhalin, Alaska and Nigeria. Pressure from the oil...
New oil discoveries to drive future conflicts in West Africa?
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Sep 22, 2009
New oil finds off the coast of West Africa raise fears of oil corporations causing increased militarization in a region not yet touched by the crude resource curse. In mid-September US corp Anadarko and Irish/British company Tullow announced a major oil-discovery off the coast of Sierra Leone. The FT’s map below shows how this find...
Pacific Environment challenge offshore drilling in USA
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Sep 6, 2009
Pacific Environment are organising to challenge offshore drilling in the US: On his way out of Washington, former President Bush pushed through a plan that would sell off almost all of Alaska’s Arctic waters to Big Oil and would also open California’s coastlines to drilling. This plan continues the U.S.’s unmatched contribution to greenhouse gas emissions...
BP keeps digging deeper under Caspian
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Aug 12, 2009
The main workhorse of Azeri oil production – the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field – will peak in 2010, due to BP and consortium members driving an aggressively fast extraction programme. As the revenues poured in over the last eight years, the state budget soared, covering military expansion, President Aliev’s opulent lifestyle and doubtful infrastructure projects including a...
