As if Shell haven't got enough problems...

national | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Sunday April 30, 2006 18:17

by Shell to Sea

Sunday Times says Shell's Mayo pipeline is going rusty.

Shell recently made a big deal out of covering and securing the pipes which are lying around in Mayo, so that the weather can't do any more damage to them. However the rest of the experimental pipeline is rusting away in Donegal it seems...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2158255,00....html

Hi-Tech Shell Pipeline in Rossport

The Sunday Times - Ireland

The Sunday Times April 30, 2006

Shell’s pipes ‘rusting away’
Aine Ryan
AS if Shell did not have enough problems already with the Corrib gas field, it has now emerged that the pipes it plans to use to pump gas ashore in north Mayo are rusting away in Killybegs.

Work on the €900m Corrib gas project is suspended, and while Shell waits for a breakthrough in the stand-off with locals, more than 7,000 pipes that it bought four years ago are being battered by the Atlantic elements in Donegal. The oil company has already spent about €3m having them cleaned and preserved.

Experts say that “shot-blasting” is the only way to ensure “the integrity and wall thickness of corroded pipes”, but it appears that Shell has not used this method so far.

Shell to Sea, a protest group campaigning for the gas to be refined offshore, claims a significant number of the pipes are now corroded by rust and are not protected by plastic caps.

The anti-Shell protesters were tipped off about the condition of the pipes recently in an anonymous letter from a Killybegs fisherman who says that he was employed to clean them last year.

The man claimed “the cleaning process was a joke and a waste of time” and that Shell had decided that shot-blasting and painting were “too dear”. Instead it instructed contractors to wash the pipes out with water, put a plastic cap on the end and then wrap up the bare metal with a greased tape.

Susan Shannon, a Shell spokeswoman, confirmed that a British company, Barrier, has a contract to clean the steel pipes.

Shannon said that Shell had a regular regime for checking cracks in the plastic end-caps, and insisted that the pipes will be rigorously inspected before being moved to north Mayo.

According to the anonymous letter, broken end-caps and greased tape are now being take off the pipes, which have rusted in the past year.

“This means that the pipes in Donegal are effectively scrap at the moment,” said John Monaghan, son-in-law of Micheal O’Seighin, one of the Rossport Five. “We are horrified at the lack of care Shell is taking of the pipes in Donegal, where there are no protesters, while apparently babysitting those in Bellanaboy.”

Shell says the pipes will be moved from Killybegs so they can all be stored at one location.

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Shell gas field protesters threaten to turn Ireland into a new Nigeria

by supp

Sun Apr 30, 2006 20:03

Shell gas field protesters threaten to turn Ireland into a new Nigeria
'Rossport Five' warn that more local people are ready to go to jail over plans to pipe raw gas across their land
By Tim Webb
Published: 30 April 2006

The Rossport Five, who went to jail last year for their protests against a planned Shell gas pipeline in Ireland, have warned that the company will need army protection if it does not change its plans.

Vincent McGrath spent 94 days in jail with four other County Mayo landowners over their campaign against the Corrib gas project. He told The Independent on Sunday that more protesters, including women and children, would be prepared to go to jail to try to stop the pipeline going ahead.

The two sides have held two mediation sessions in the past two months to find a compromise, but Mr McGrath said little progress had been made.

The campaign will next focus on the company's annual shareholder meeting in a fortnight. Mr McGrath said he and other protesters had recently become shareholders and were considering attending the meeting...

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article3609...4.ece

Don't give em headlines

Sun Apr 30, 2006 23:21

Shell
The Rossport Five, who went to jail last year for their protests against a planned Shell gas pipeline in Ireland, have warned that the company will need army protection if it does not change its plans.

If the quotes in the first article is even somewhat accurate then Vincent McGrath should be more careful what he says :-/. There may be precedent and they may be the aggressor but don't take it to the next step before they do?

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As if Shell haven't got enough problems...

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