Oil firm Shell has recently moved to search for oil in arctic waters, but closer to home and in very different conditions to the icy and frozen waters an arctic winter can throw up, a major gas leak has happened off the Aberdeen coast on a Total platform and close to a Shell platform.
A gas cloud can be seen seven miles away and a deepwater type emergency plan to rescue the stricken platform is now underway. Already Total, a French oil group, seem to be without any idea of how to stop the leak, which has forced them to evacuate workers and has created a gas slick onto the sea. A no fly exclusion zone has also been put in place.
Go here for the story.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17505448
This latest leak and spill shows first hand that oil firms are incompetetent and should not be allowed to be anywhere near to Arctic or deep waters, they are essentially an accident waiting to happen. This latest environmental scandal also shows that no more oil wells should be drilled off the pristeen scottish coastline and especially the deep water drilling off the coast of shetland. But with George Osborne giving oil firms a polluters charter, this is something that the British Isles faces again and again unless we say NO and MOVE BEYOND OIL to more safer renewable energy.
UPDATE 28/03/12
Shares in the French oil company fell 6% in Paris on Monday, wiping E 5.5 billion euros (£4.6billion) from off its value, costs for Total could rise to billions of dollars.
Last year documents obtained by the Guardian showed that the two oil companies with the most ferequent oil spills in the North sea was Shell and Total. Meanwhile Shell are exploring the pristeen waters of the Arctic in search of oil. How long will it be until an unforgivable accident happens in the waters of an Arctic winter? Shell should get out and stay out of Arctic waters.
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