Environmental performance

As a result, progress on long-term efforts to improve environmental performance slowed. Our commitment to end continuous flaring is a case in point. There is no continuous flaring of natural gas at Shell-run offshore operations nor at the LNG plant. And by 2006, when the violence began, continuous flaring from SPDC-run onshore operations had dropped by more than 30% as a result of a $3 billion investment programme since 2000 to install equipment to capture and use gas previously flared. We were not able to complete the installation of gas gathering equipment in 2007 because of the lack of joint venture partner funding and because sites still needing it could not be safely reached. The reduction in flaring in 2006 and 2007 was due to production being shut in. We remain committed to ending continuous flaring. The needed repairs and construction work will restart once we have safe access to sites and stable funding.

As operator of the joint venture, SPDC continued to clean up old oil spills. In 2007, it completed the clean up of 61 out of 74 outstanding sites. Of the remaining 13, communities refused access to eight of the sites and work continues on the remaining five. By 2006, SPDC had dramatically reduced operational spills, thanks to better pipeline monitoring and maintenance. Progress has stalled as the security and funding crises took their toll. As a result, in 2007, operational spills in areas where the joint venture had access rose for the second year running.

Wherever SPDC has been forced to withdraw because of the current security situation, it has fully shut down the production facilities to limit the spill damage from sabotage by criminals and militants.