Oil giant Shell was fined £22,500 yesterday (24 Nov 2015) at Aberdeen sheriff court for a 2011 oil spill in the North Sea that was the largest in more than a decade.
A subsea pipeline leak from Shell’s Gannet Alpha field spilled more than 200 tonnes of oil into the central North Sea in August 2011. Shell pleaded guilty in the case.
The oil major has accepted the charge and said it had since carried out a review of its North Sea pipeline system and had applied lessons learned across its British operations.
Paul Goodfellow, UK Director for Shell Upstream, said: “We deeply regret the Gannet spill and accept the fine which has been handed down to us. We know that no spill is acceptable.”
Environmental campaigners said the fine was too low given the scale of Shell’s finances and operations.
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