Shell under pressure to reveal details of oil leak

Kevin Rawlinson
Friday 19 August 2011 00:00 BST
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Shell has come under pressure from environmental campaigners to publish its most recent pipeline inspection report – a week after one of its offshore rigs caused the UK's worst oil spill in more than a decade. RSPB Scotland called for the company to come clean after Shell admitted letting more than 200 tonnes escape into the North Sea.

The leak was discovered last Wednesday but was not made public for two days, when Shell announced it was "under control".

On Tuesday it emerged a secondary leak was still spewing around one barrel of oil per day into the sea from the same source.

RSPB Scotland said: "We would like Shell to publish details of the last recent pipeline inspection report. That would be very helpful because they have been talking about subsea infrastructure. Some of that now may be quite old and now would be a good time to let the public know about the situation.

"It would be interesting to know what that shows."

Shell has not agreed to do so. But yesterday afternoon it said it was continuing to make "good progress" towards stopping the leak from the "flowline" to the platform of the rig, named Gannet Alpha.

Glen Cayley, technical director of Shell's exploration and production activities in Europe, said: "Throughout these operations, safety remains our first priority."

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