When Gas Explodes

Smithers, BC - One Sky – The Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living has released a report on the corporate acquisition of Shell Canada Limited by Royal Dutch Shell (through the wholly owned subsidiary Shell Investments Limited).  The report warns of British Columbia becoming a “Nigeria of the North” and draws parallels between the recent turmoil in Tahltan territory of northwestern British Columbia and the current crisis in the Niger Delta.
 
One Sky has been working with local communities, the State government and environmental groups in the Niger Delta since 2002 and is headquartered in the town of Smithers in Northern British Columbia. Royal Dutch Shell has plans to develop as many as 1,400 wellheads in the Bowser-Sustut basin also known as the “Sacred Headwaters” region by local First Nations. The report outlines the corporate behavior of Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta, quoting an internal Shell report, and warns that a similar approach in Northern B.C. will result in a social “explosion”.
 
BC’s Northwest “is a potentially explosive mix of gas, oil, traditional values, economic interests and ethnic divisions,” according to the One Sky report. “The region is no stranger to protests, arrests and potential violence.” The report asks the question “How will Royal Dutch Shell handle Northern B.C.? Will it become a Nigeria of the North?”
 
Unlike the Niger Delta, British Columbia is home to a powerful environmental sector and established legal precedents regarding First Nations territorial rights. Royal Dutch Shell has been harshly criticized for its role in crushing the Ogoni people’s territorial claims and for environmental damage in the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta.
 
“The corporate culture that Shell has managed for fifty years in the Niger Delta is not going to work here,” observed Michael Simpson, Executive Director of One Sky. Currently fifty percent of Royal Dutch Shell’s operations are shut down and Nigeria has lost almost a third of its production because of unrest, kidnappings, oil spills and oil bunkering in the Niger Delta. “They are walking into a tinderbox where you simply cannot do business the way it is done in Nigeria.”
 
To download the report “When Gas Explodes” go to www.onesky.ca