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Shell has made three applications to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) to conduct exploration on its contiguous blocks stretching from close to Calvinia in the west to Queenstown in the east and covering over 90,000 sq.km.

Shell invited comments in January 2011, before the Environmental Management Programmes (EMPs) were begun, in documents entitled Background Informatiom Document The law requires Shell to produce the EMPs within 120 days of its application and its agent Golders Associates held a series of open meetings around the Karoo, in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. We submitted a list of questions to Golders and asked them to address these as part of the EMP process.

The first round of meetings were designed to enlighten the public as to what Shell intended. But word spread quickly about the fact that fracking would be part of their activities. Apart from the few that saw employment opportunities for themselves, almost all attendees were strongly against the proposals. The second round was micro-managed by Golders and most left the meetings disatisfied.

Shell produced its EMPs in early March. One of the three draft EMPs is available from this website. Our comments to each of these 3 documents, which totalled about 799 pages, were required by April 25th. So, around 4 weeks were given to us to sift the scientific evidence that PASA required. We maintain that such a timescale is completely inadequate

Our response is in two forms, the document itself and a more readable (text-only) form.

Shell and Golders then had two weeks to respond to the issues raised. Again this time-scale is insufficient to allow a carefully considered response.

According to PASA's guidelines a decision on the application would be due 120 days from April 14th, which we calculate as August 12th.

The uncertainty surrounding whether the application will be subject to the moratorium that was announced on Thursday April 21st has been clarified by Mineral Resources Minister, Mrs. Susan Shabangu, and the Shell application will not be allowed to proceed.

Meanwhile, during this interval, the world looks on. South Africa hosted the next round of the IPCC negotiations, the so-called COP17 in Durban at the end of November 2011. The SKA project home was announced in 2012. It will be split between southern Africa and Australia. Shell's blocks overlap some areas which SKA requires to be near silent as far as radio frequency emissions are concerned. As time rolls on it will make increasing sense to await the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of fracking which is due towards the end of 2012. The multi-disciplinary committee cannot conduct case studies in South Africa because there are no cases to study. It makes substantial sense to await findings from the country that has far and away the most experience of fracking.

In mid 2012 Shell headed for the Arctic to commence drilling in the pristine North. They are increasingly eager to extract oil from some of the most difficult environments on the planet and are in danger of creating an environmental disaster. They admit that a spill at the end of the drilling season could not be tackled until the next season, 9 months away, whilst telling us that they would recover 90% of any oil spilled. In the cases of both the Exxon Valdez and the Deepwater Horizon disasters less than 10% was recovered with hugely better access for mop-up facilities.

	Shell's way of doing Business Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has been subjected to considerable criticism from the press and its own employees in the last few years. The principal recorders of that criticism are Alfred Donovan (aged 94) and his son, John. According to one Shell official "Their website is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out." The citicisms include: – Evidence that Shell conspired directly with Hitler – Surreptitiously continued to buy oil from the Iranians – Terrorist tactics against a Malaysian whistleblower – WikiLeaks exposure that Shell embedded spies in the Nigerian Government – Shell used employees as guinea pigs in a study of carcinogenic properties of its products – Thousands of Shell workers asked to reapply for their jobs – Paid a $10 Million Fine to the Nigerian Government over alleged bribes – Shell targeted the website – Death threats to Shell whistleblowers – Consultant accuses Shell over oil rig safety – Shell paid $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Human Rights Case – Secret papers 'show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests' – Tony Blair used a letter written by Shell to lobby Colonel Gaddafi to clinch an oil deal – BAE Systems whistleblower accuses Shell and BP of money laundering Use the above link to view the details of all these allegations and the evidence. Check out: Shell's Nigeria Pollution Lawsuit Reaches The Hague The latest UNEP report involving Shell : UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health Two large crude oil spills from Shell pipelines in the Niger delta four years ago have still not been cleaned up by the company. Then ask: 'Why are we thinking of allowing this company to do business here?'		The Shell Application Shell has made three applications to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) to conduct exploration on its contiguous blocks stretching from close to Calvinia in the west to Queenstown in the east and covering over 90,000 sq.km. Shell invited comments in January 2011, before the Environmental Management Programmes (EMPs) were begun, in documents entitled Background Informatiom Document The law requires Shell to produce the EMPs within 120 days of its application and its agent Golders Associates held a series of open meetings around the Karoo, in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. We submitted a list of questions to Golders and asked them to address these as part of the EMP process. The first round of meetings were designed to enlighten the public as to what Shell intended. But word spread quickly about the fact that fracking would be part of their activities. Apart from the few that saw employment opportunities for themselves, almost all attendees were strongly against the proposals. The second round was micro-managed by Golders and most left the meetings disatisfied. Shell produced its EMPs in early March. One of the three draft EMPs is available from this website. Our comments to each of these 3 documents, which totalled about 799 pages, were required by April 25th. So, around 4 weeks were given to us to sift the scientific evidence that PASA required. We maintain that such a timescale is completely inadequate Our response is in two forms, the document itself and a more readable (text-only) form. Shell and Golders then had two weeks to respond to the issues raised. Again this time-scale is insufficient to allow a carefully considered response. According to PASA's guidelines a decision on the application would be due 120 days from April 14th, which we calculate as August 12th. The uncertainty surrounding whether the application will be subject to the moratorium that was announced on Thursday April 21st has been clarified by Mineral Resources Minister, Mrs. Susan Shabangu, and the Shell application will not be allowed to proceed. Meanwhile, during this interval, the world looks on. South Africa hosted the next round of the IPCC negotiations, the so-called COP17 in Durban at the end of November 2011. The SKA project home was announced in 2012. It will be split between southern Africa and Australia. Shell's blocks overlap some areas which SKA requires to be near silent as far as radio frequency emissions are concerned. As time rolls on it will make increasing sense to await the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of fracking which is due towards the end of 2012. The multi-disciplinary committee cannot conduct case studies in South Africa because there are no cases to study. It makes substantial sense to await findings from the country that has far and away the most experience of fracking. In mid 2012 Shell headed for the Arctic to commence drilling in the pristine North. They are increasingly eager to extract oil from some of the most difficult environments on the planet and are in danger of creating an environmental disaster. They admit that a spill at the end of the drilling season could not be tackled until the next season, 9 months away, whilst telling us that they would recover 90% of any oil spilled. In the cases of both the Exxon Valdez and the Deepwater Horizon disasters less than 10% was recovered with hugely better access for mop-up facilities.
			Documenting Shell’s 2012 Arctic Drilling Debacle "The grounding of Shell’s enormous Kulluk drilling rig near Kodiak Island, Alaska in early January 2013 has not inspired confidence in its preparedness to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean." "Adding insult to injury, on Thursday, the Alaska Dispatch reported that the reason Shell was working so feverishly to move the rig in such harsh conditions was to avoid paying millions of dollars in state taxes it would have owed if the rig was still in Alaska waters on January 1." - Now it's clear. For Shell, money trumps environment, every time [Ian]. "Far from an isolated incident, the latest fiasco is just the most recent in a litany of technical failures and struggles with Mother Nature that continue to accentuate Shell’s lack of preparedness to operate in the region. As Christopher Helman writes in Forbes, 'It would be a comedy of errors, if the stakes weren’t so high.' CITED \| WEIGHTY OPPOSITION \| IN CONTRAST THE TAX ANGLE \| READ MORE