Paul Brown in London
SHELL, which has been wrestling with a multi-million pound problem of what to do with its giant Brent Spar oil storage platform since Greenpeace stopped it being dumped in the sea in 1995, this week awarded six companies contracts worth more than $1,5-million to develop proposals for its disposal.
Two groups suggest using the top of the hulk as a training centre for the off-shore oil industry. Others propose filling the giant steel rings of the 14 500 ton structure with rock and sand to make coastal defences, or use them for a new harbour quay, a giant dock gate, or fish farming tanks.
Brent Spar is anchored in a Norwegian fiord at a cost of $30 000 a month. It is expected to have cost Shell $28,5-million by the time it is disposed of next year.
Heinz Rothermund, managing director of exploration and production for Shell, said the contractors’ job was to develop an idea that was as good as or better than deep sea disposal. He accepted that any method other than dumping would be more expensive, but the company was committed to finding the best solution.
The British government had given Shell a licence to dump the platform at sea. Any new method of disposal would have to gain government approval.
Rothermund said deep sea disposal had to remain an option until a better one could be found. “We have to accept that the Brent Spar will set a precedent for the disposal of off-shore oil installations, and we have to get it right. Not least we have to gain public acceptance.”
There are 50 oil installations in the sea that have to be disposed of in the next 10 years. Shell has budgeted “hundreds of millions” to do the job in the next century.
Greenpeace, which campaigned against the sea disposal of Brent Spar, called for sea dumping to be formally withdrawn as an option. “Shell’s elaborate consultation is a purely disingenuous PR exercise if they still seriously consider dumping the Brent Spar in the ocean,” it said.