Last night the operator of Shell’s two Arctic drilling rigs employed in 2012, pleaded guilty to eight felony charges for environmental and safety violations during that operation. Noble Drilling has agreed to pay $12.2 million dollars in fines and community service payments.
Read the US Department of Justice release.
In response, Greenpeace Arctic campaigner, Ian Duff, issued the following statement:
"Shell has proven time and again it can’t be trusted to manage its
contractors safely. That Shell engaged Noble Drilling, a company now guilty of
eight felonies, is the clearest indicator yet. Letting Shell back into such a
precious and risky environment as the Arctic would be sheer madness, yet that’s
what Shell wants to do next summer. Surely now President Obama has to think
twice about approving Shell’s next venture in the Arctic, which the
government's own scientists say has a 75% chance of causing a large spill.
Shell’s past attempts to drill in the Arctic have been plagued with multiple
operational failings culminating in the running
aground of its drilling rig, the Kulluk.
In April 2014 the US Coast Guard published its report
into the grounding of the Kulluk at the end of 2012 and concluded it was
caused by Shell’s “inadequate assessment and managing of risks” and its attempt
to avoid paying tax in Alaska.
The extreme Arctic conditions, including giant floating ice-bergs and stormy
seas, make offshore drilling extremely risky. And scientists
say that in the Arctic, an oil spill would be impossible to clean up
meaning devastation for the Arctic’s unique wildlife.
But on 28 August 2014 Shell submitted new
plans to the US administration for offshore exploratory drilling in the
Alaskan Arctic, meaning it’s on course to resurrect its Arctic drilling plans
as early as summer 2015.
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