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Britain refuses to stop offshore drilling
[Iran Press TV] A British Parliamentary Committee has put its weight behind deep offshore drilling irrespective of environmental concerns raised by oil companies over possible spills.Oil companies warned that current plans for drilling off Scotland's Shetland Islands could cause a spill worse than the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the United States was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010. The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig kaboom. The kaboom killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others. On July 15, the leak was stopped by capping the gushing wellhead, after it had released about 4.9 million barrel, or 205.8 million gallons of crude oil. However, The infamous However... the British Parliament Energy and Climate Change Committee rejected a moratorium after investigating the risks, the Daily Telegraph reported. The Chairman of the Committee, MP Tim Yeo, said Britain's energy and national security depends on exploiting the newly discovered oilfields. He said safety rules could be "tightened up". "I think the concerns are nothing like big enough to justify stopping the process," he said. A quarter of the United Kingdom's known oil and gas reserves, about 4 billion barrels, lie in deep water off the West of Shetland. Only four fields are currently in production, but the government has granted more than 100 exploration licenses with more pending. Ben Ayliffe of Greenpeace cited a doubling of serious accidents and a rise in spilled oil at rigs operating off the UK coast. The Marine Conservation Society calls for a moratorium on drilling in the area because of the risk to wildlife and fisheries. Posted by: Fred 2011-01-07 |
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