An academic paper presented at a conference in India this week proposes that rapid fossil fuel extraction could change the planet’s tilt and spin. Don’t know enough about the science, so it might not be credible at all. But I can already see the PR teams lobbying for equal fossil fuel expansion potential everywhere in…

Unconventional shale gas has been discovered in the waters off Liverpool by IGas. Shale gas is natural gas lodged within shale rock, until recently largely inaccessible. Financial viability has increased with the expansion of hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – the pumping of complex and polluting liquids into the rocks, to fracture them horizontally. This has led to major concerns…

For 11 years the people of County Mayo in Ireland have been resisting Shell’s efforts to develop a dangerous high pressure raw gas pipeline. Pat O’Donnell, a prominent local fisherman and anti-Shell campaigner defending his family and livelihood has been sentenced to 7 months in jail. Retired Maura Harrington was also convicted of charges including…

Concerned employees could be joining global campaigners to demand changes from Shell; including an end to daily gas flaring and oil spills in the Niger Delta. Stories in the Financial Times and The Times today revealed that: Contact details for 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell have been sent to environmental and human…

Nigerian investors attempting to end gas flaring in Nigeria have publicly accused Shell and other international oil companies of obstructing their plans. The Nigerian companies signed a Memo of Understanding with the Nigerian government to divert the gas to domestic power generation in December 2009. The international oil companies continue to flare gas causing a…

Local opposition is slowing Shell’s plans to drill for “tight gas” in Mora County in North-Western Arizona. Until recently, extracting “tight” or “shale gas” wasn’t economically viable, due to the smaller quantities dispersed across a wider rock deposit. However, new techniques known as “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” allow oil & gas corporations to access these…

Internationally recognised marine scientist Rick Steiner was forced to resign his position as professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program in Anchorage. Prof Steiner has played an important role in recent years in raising concerns over oil company, particularly Shell, operations in Sakhalin, Alaska and Nigeria. Pressure from the oil…