Shell’s Deepwater Nautilus was drilling an exploratory well in about 7,000 feet of water on Sunday when drilling fluid and oil began leaking from a booster line. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean, the same company that was operating the BP Deepwater Horizon when it exploded and sank in early 2010, causing the worst environmental disaster in American history.

While a report Shell filed Monday morning with the National Response Center states that the company spilled 7,560 gallons of oil and 5,829 gallons of synthetic drilling fluids, company spokesperson Kelly op de Weegh said late Monday afternoon that no oil was spilled.

The National Response Center report lists “equipment failure” as the cause of the spill. The report states that the release was caused by “a leak in the boost line,” and describes the fluid spilled as a mix of drilling mud and “base oil.”

The Shell spill occurred just days after the Obama administration gave Royal Dutch Shell the green light to drill in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea beginning next summer – despite the fact that there is no proven way to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic’s extreme conditions and there is significant dearth of scientific information, making it impossible to understand the impacts of Shell’s activities.

Related Reading:

Poll: 84% Of Florida Voters Want BP Fines To Fund Gulf Coast Restoration

BP Sneaks Back Into The Gulf Of Mexico

“Greedy Lying Bastards” Exposes Big Oil’s Dirty Secret

Image Credit: Flickr – lautenbach

Yesterday Royal Dutch Shell said it had closed a Gulf of Mexico deep drilling operation after spilling 319 barrels of contaminated fluids, as Care2′s Beth Buczynski reported here.

Today we read that Nigeria has just suffered Shell’s worst oil spill in a decade, and Nigerian coastal and fishing communities have been put on alert.

Shell’s Rape of Nigeria Continues

The company said up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on December 21 while it was being transferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta.

From The Guardian:

All production from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day, was last night suspended. “Early indications show that less than 40,000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running,” said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.

Satellite pictures obtained by independent monitors Skytruth suggested that the spill was 70km-long and was spread over 923 square kilometers (356 sq miles).

But a leading Nigerian human rights group said Shell’s figures about the quantity of oil spilled or the clean-up could not be relied on. “Shell says 40,000 barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them because past incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts and impacts of its carelessness,” said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, based in Lagos.

The List Of Shell’s Environmental Atrocities In The Niger Delta Grows Longer

As reported by Amnesty International, in 2008, two consecutive spills, caused by faults in a pipeline, resulted in thousands of barrels of oil polluting the land and creek surrounding Bodo, a town of some 69,000 people. Both spills continued for weeks before they were stopped. They devastated the lives of tens of thousands of people, destroying livelihoods, undermining access to food and clean water and putting health at risk. No proper clean up has ever taken place.

Last month, Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) issued a report on the situation and demanded that Shell oil pay $1 billion to begin to clean up the pollution.

Shell Made $7.2 Billion In Three Months, But Can’t Afford To Clean Up?

Shell, which recently reported profits of $7.2 billion for July-September, initially offered the Bodo community just 50 bags of rice, beans, sugar and tomatoes as relief for the disaster.

The rape and pillage of Nigeria has been going on for decades. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental activist who was fighting for the rights of the Ogoni people, whose land was being destroyed by Shell, was executed for defending his homeland 16 years ago; in fact Amnesty International’s report was issued to mark this anniversary.

“The prolonged failure of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to clean up the oil that was spilled, continues to have catastrophic consequences,” the Amnesty report noted.

Is Royal Dutch Shell familiar with the word “Accountability”? Shame on you, Shell.

Related Stories

New Oil Spill Contaminates Gulf Near Former Deepwater Horizon

“Greedy Lying Bastards” Exposes Big Oil’s Dirty Secret

Shell ‘Regrets’ Spilling 56,600 Gallons Of Oil Into North Sea

Photo Credit: Remember Saro-Wiwa

Related Stories

Winter Arriving Faster Than Help in Attawapiskat Crisis

Thousands of Homeless Massacred, Forced to Live in Sewers

Homeless LGBT Youth: A Day In Our Shoes (VIDEO)

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) believes it has the support of Canadians. CAPP President David Collyer told the Financial Post that “it is important not to construe the very strong and vocal opposition from environmental activists” as being representative of overall public sentiment. Recent poll numbers show that he may be out of touch with reality, since at least half of Canadians are opposed to many of the key projects planned by the oil industry.

A recent Forum Research poll quoted by the Financial Post shows that the environmental impacts of proposed oil sands and pipeline projects are significant concerns for Canadians. The responses to some of the questions posed was as follows:

• Do you agree that oil from the Alberta oil sands is more ethical than oil from the Middle East?
  • 60% agree
  • 22% disagree
  • 18% don’t know
• 
  Are you in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline which would carry crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to Houston, Texas?
  • 38% in favor
  • 49% opposed
  • 13% don’t know
• 
  Are you favor of a second pipeline, the Northern Gateway pipeline which would carry crude oil from the Alberta oil sands across the Rocky Mountains to the B.C. coast at Kitimat, to be shipped by tankers to refineries in Asia?
  • 35% in favor
  • 51% opposed
  • 15% don’t know

With only slightly more than 1/3 of Canadians being in favor of the major pipeline projects, it is obvious that there are significant public concerns that still need to be addressed.

While delays in the approval of the Keystone XL project in the United States has made the future and timeline of that project uncertain, the Canadians appear to be changing tracks and now looking more seriously at the option of shipping oil to China. Danielle Droitsch with the Natural Resources Defense Council doesn’t see this as a viable option at the moment. In her blog post, Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s empty threat to ship tar sands to China, she writes:

In a Canadian television interview this week Prime Minister Harper restated a threat that they will send Canada’s tar sands to Asian markets. He said, “I am very serious about selling our oil off this continent, selling our energy products off to China.” While Harper wants U.S. politicians to think Canada can simply ship tar sands elsewhere, the reality is Canada’s only real option at this time is to export oil via a pipeline across America’s heartland. Canada’s Queen University public policy professor Warren Mabee puts it into context calling the Harper’s argument a ‘pipe dream.’ He said, “It’s the sort of things we say to the Americans when the Americans are dilly-dallying around buying our resource, that we can just sell it somewhere else.” In fact, Canada is having significant trouble moving tar sands oil through its own country and particularly to its western coast where it can access international markets.

The reality is that a significant segment of the Canadian population and, in particular, First Nations communities with legitimate land claims, have the potential to significantly delay or otherwise impede the project. Public pressure is working and activists who oppose the pipeline will need to remain diligent, active and vocal to achieve their goals.

Related Stories

Dozens Arrested at Canadian Tar Sands and Pipeline Protest

TransCanada Admits It Lied About Keystone XL Jobs

GOP Embraces Showdown Over Oil Pipeline, Tax Cuts