Untested Technology News

Royal Dutch Shell has dropped one of Norway's biggest and most innovative industrial projects due to rising costs and complexity, dealing a blow to a technology that some hope could revolutionise offshore production. Shell said on Friday it would postpone a project to provide subsea compression at the North Sea's Ormen Lange, the second-biggest Norwegian gas field, despite the objections of a key license partner. The decision will not be re-evaluated for several years, until new technology and reservoir information become available, Shell said. Costs have soared in Norway's vast offshore oil sector over the past decade, and oil firms are cancelling or delaying major developments to save on costs and earn more cash for dividends.

“Even a cursory glance at Shell’s oil spill response plans shows that the company could not deal with an accident in these remote and challenging waters, and we’re disappointed that the court ruled in Shell’s favour. Despite admitting that a spill in the frozen north is inevitable, Shell operated with a response plan that relied on untested technology and equipment totally incapable of working effectively in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. The company’s claim that it could handle a worst-case spill in the Chukchi Sea is absurd. “Safe drilling in the far north is a fantasy.