" . . Ridden Roughshod Over By The Might Of Shell, The Irish State . . "

mayo | environment | feature

Tuesday April 05, 2005 20:23

by William

Letter To Norwegian Ambassador Regarding Shell/Statoil Operations In Mayo

FROM: Padhraig Campbell, Campaign for Protection of Resources, Freeport, Barna, Co Galway / Majella McCarron, Ogoni Solidarity Ireland

TO: His Excellency the Norwegian Ambassador, Mr Truls Hanevold, Norwegian Embassy, Dublin 2

Monday, 4th April, 2005

Your Excellency,

We are writing to you in support of the landowners and stake-holders affected by the operational activities of the Corrib North Consortium of Shell, Statoil and Marathon.

As the Norwegian government currently owns 70% of Statoil, we call on your government to instruct the board of Statoil to stop the coercive intrusion on the lands of families who are being hauled before the High Court in Dublin by Shell on behalf of the consortium of which Statoil is a member.

The genuine fears and concerns of the residents are being ridden roughshod over by the might of Shell, the Irish state, local authorities, semi-state bodies and the judicial process. Apart from the unprecedented use of an upstream pipeline so far inshore to a seriously unsafe proposed refinery, untreated raw gas at maximum pressure puts the lives and livelihoods of those families in serious danger.

Allied to this is the fact that this high-pressure line passes under the highly-unstable landslide zone of Dooncarton Mountain, where landslides occured on the night of 19th September, 2003.

This pipeline would not be allowed in Norway. We insist that the same standards that apply in Norway apply in Rossport, Co Mayo and in Ireland generally. Statoil and the Norwegian people will be the beneficiaries of the most generous tax deal in the world. However, serious questions are being asked as to how the oil companies have come to benefit from such an extent and as to the role that Ireland's former Energy Minister, the now disgraced Ray Burke, had in forming the oil tax deal that now pertains.

Respectfully,

Padhraig Campbell
Majella McCarron