Fossil Energy – Bomb
Shell has confirmed the discovery of an unexploded bomb next to a 40-year-old gas line running across the North Sea.
During an inspection of the Far North Liquids and Associated Gas System Pipeline (Flags pipeline), Shell’s staff located what they believe to be an unexploded bomb near the line at a position about 40 miles to the east of Shetland.
Unexploded ordnance from World War II – and even earlier – is found regularly in UK waters, and it poses a potential hazard to navigation and development.
Shell has launched an investigation into how this unexploded bomb came to be next to an operating subsea gas pipeline, and the supermajor has brought in a third-party advisor to examine the circumstances.
The Flags pipeline was installed in 1982, in the heyday of North Sea oil and gas development. It is a 36-inch line stretching about 200 nautical miles north to south, and delivers wet gas from the Brent Field to the St. Fergus Gas Terminal in Scotland.
In 2007, Flags was connected to the Tampen gas pipeline between Norway’s Statfjord development and the UK. Shell and ExxonMobil share the pipeline’s ownership.
