Drilling in Guyana- Press release # 2
Shell is leading the dance in Guyana. The offshore is going to be subjected for over a year to the harmful effects and pollutions of 4 exploratory petroleum drillings and experimental pumping. The Guyanese coast and neighboring countries are not immune to drifts of accidental oil spills. The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission has highlighted the diversity of large and small cetaceans off the coast of Guyana in 2011. Manatees, leatherback sea-turtles, and thousands of migrating birds that come from the Caribbean and Brazil to reproduce on the Grand Connétable Islands are threatened by the ultra-deep drilling thanks to the Shell’s supremacy, pressure from the Guyana elect, and the weaknesses of the French governments. The story began in May 2001, with the issuance from a prefect departmental Prefect order granting an exclusive permit for oil exploration also called the Guyana Maritime license. The energy transition made a detour by the prehistoric era and it is well known that the impact on the environment does not address, far from it, all the risks due to noise, light and atmospheric pollution.
Shell also cares little for local populations and has already polluted several hundred hectares of territory of a small forgotten and threatened community in the confines of Petit-Couronne, Normandy: aboriginal shelters are polluted by benzene. By 1985, the content of hydrocarbon in the wells and catchment areas exceeded the authorised limit for drinking water. In 1990, a house was blown up when a resident of Petit-Couronne lit the gas powered water heater in his basement. The ARIA database traced more than 20 accidents on the Shell site of Petit-Couronne between 1990 and 2007. Even today, accumulations of vapors of hydrocarbon remain possible in basements and local water cannot be used for gardening. In March 2008, Shell turned over the largest part of the site to Petroplus. Shell is guilty of accumulated pollution hitting 225 hectares of the refinery since 1948, but now it is not financially or administratively responsible. The cleanup of the largest polluted site by hydrocarbon in France is an orphan.
The oil drilling vessel that goes to intervene in Guyana was designed for drilling operations in the Arctic Polar; the Stena IceMAX first is going to sink its teeth into Guyana and in 2O14, he will be operating in the Arctic Glacial Ocean off the coast of Greenland.
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