Goodbye Shetlands

Yesterday the MV Esperanza and its crew of 36 said goodbye to the Shetlands. We gathered on the deck as we sailed past the headland at Sumburgh and left the waters of these beautiful rugged islands to the sound of voices chattering in the many languages that inhabit our ship.

South West then, into the waters off the Scottish mainland. Spreading out beneath the grey sky was a silver sea dotted with oil rigs. They come in clusters, in lines of four or five spaced a mile or more apart. If you approach an oil field from a certain angle you see the rigs lined up, the closest huge and menacing, the others getting smaller the further away they are, like a line of those identical Russian dolls that fit inside each other. There are over 570 oil and gas rigs in the North Sea, and they pose a huge threat to the marine environment.

The oil industry is a major source of pollution here, with as much as 1,600km2 of the Sea floor affected by drilling over the last 30 years. We witnessed the drill rig SEBO 704 (it seems the romance has gone out of naming vessels these days) making riser connections for a new well. It is one of many new oil developments in the North Sea. So far this year drilling has started on 22 new standalone exploration and appraisal wells – compared to 32 all last year, and investment is reported to be on track to hit £4.4 billion, up about 10 per cent on the previous 12 months. That is to say, the expolitation is intensifying. But you can see that by simply looking through a port hole. At night the lights of the rigs flicker just above the horizon, red and green and blue, like frozen fireworks.

A Greenpeace overflight recently witnessed a huge slick of oil seeping from Shell's Dunlin A platform. We approached the rig and Andrea, our intrepid German campaigner, took to the radio. Had there been an incident on July 7th, she asked? The senior fellow from Shell seemed coy. It's just that we saw a large spill from the air, said Andrea. A momentary splutter, then the chap from Shell gave us a number to call in Aberdeen. We still await an explanation.

I suppose our friends at Shell might have got the heebie-jeebies at the sight of a Greenpeace boat in these waters. It was at their Brent field near here that they wanted to sink the Spar in 1995. We won a famous victory that time, and here we are again. I don't suppose our tour will be as eventful as those famous days, but one can only hope.

Posted by Justine

I can't remember the details of the Brent Spa but I know you'er fdamous for it. Keep up the good work and tell the workd about the North Sea and put it on the map too. We need to do something before it's too late.

Posted by: Paella at August 3, 2004 11:58 AM

http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/brent/brent.html - for details of how the UK government granted permission for Shell Oil to dump a huge, heavily contaminated oil installation, the 4,000 tonne Brent Spar, into the North Atlantic despite it being loaded with toxic and radioactive sludge.

Posted by: Lizardfish at August 4, 2004 04:54 PM

Greenpeace sent the photograph of the oil leak from the Dunlin A oil platform to Shell with a number of questions. You can read their response below:

a) How much oil was leaked from Dunlin A on this occasion?

The photograph in question shows a sheen caused by ongoing produced water discharge from the installation. This is water produced from the reservoir with the oil. The production of this water is an inherent part of our production process and as the field matures more water is produced.
This discolouration is not due to oil leaking into the sea, but to a very thin oil sheen on the surface of the water. The sheen originates from produced water that is well within the permitted discharge limits (consents set by the DTI). The produced water discharge from Dunlin is regulated via an exemption from the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act (POPA) 71. The conditions of the exemption state that the average oil monthly content must not be greater than 40mg/kg.

b) What was the cause of this leak?

These are trace elements of oil naturally found in all produced water (water produced with the oil from the reservoir).

c) What measures were taken to contain the leak?

Produced water is treated on the platform before discharge to remove as much oil as possible and to ensure compliance with legal limits. We continually work to ensure we not only comply with, but operate well below the legal limits set by the DTI. The platform monthly average figure is currently late 20s/early 30s mg/kg compared to the legal limit of 40 mg/kg. Currently Shell's Group minimum environmental standard is 30 p.p.m.

We support the Government's commitment to comply with the OSPAR requirement to target a 15% reduction of oil in produced water by 2006 and are committed towards achieving oil-in-water discharge reductions in line with the OSPAR targets for North Sea installations.

To achieve the above targets a number of capital projects are planned to be installed over the next two years. The main technologies being considered are produced water re-injection; and produced water treatment improvements. Final investment decisions have yet to be made, but it is anticipated that a number of projects will be approved, both on Northern and Southern North Sea installations, to meet the OSPAR targets. In addition to the capital investment, there are ongoing efforts to improve water quality through continuously focussing on, and improving, the operational performance of the existing equipment.

d) What measures were taken to clean up the leaked oil?

See above - this is produced water discharge.

e) Are leaks of this size a regular occurrence? How often would you expect a leak of this, or other sizes, to occur?

See above - this is produced water discharge.

Posted by: From Shell at September 2, 2004 12:43 PM