7/11 Turkey Narrowly Escapes Oil Disaster

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press 
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase 
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TURKEY NARROWLY ESCAPED OIL DISASTER
Perenco still systematically polluting aquifer in Diyarbakir  
 
Press Release-Istanbul, July 11, 1996 (GP) Turkey has narrowly
escaped from a disaster when an oil pipeline belonging to the
company Perenco recently exploded near the southeastern city of
Diyarbakir, the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office learnt from
reliable official sources.
 
The accident occurred last Tuesday July 9 as Perenco was still
systematically pumping contaminated production water from its
drilling operations into the Midyat Aquifer, which is a major
source of drinkable water for about two million people living in
Diyarbakir.
 
The sources told Greenpeace that a pipeline, which transports
crude oil to nearby tanks, burst two day ago at noon. The blast
ignited a fire some 50 kilometres north of Diyarbakir. Perenco
could not put out the fire. It called the army which was able to
stop the fire from reaching huge oil tanks the same day late in
the afternoon
 
Greenpeace Mediterranean has contacted the headquarters of
Perenco in Ankara, but the company refused to give any
information about the size of the oil spill and the
environmental impact of the accident. The Turkish media
estimated that the damage cost four billion Turkish Lira (about
five million dollars).  
"Perenco is responsible for the environmental damage and health
hazards caused in the area near Diyarbakir," said Berto Hullu,
Campaigner of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office in  Istanbul.
"The pipelines of  Perenco are falling apart and maintenance
work is almost non-existent to save costs."  
"Authorities must demand that Perenco repairs and maintains its
facilities to achieve the best available safety standards. The
company must also stop injecting production water polluted with
chemicals and oils into the Midyat aquifer. Operational and
environmental standards for oil companies have been established
in Europe for years, and Perenco has to operate to these
standards everywhere," he added.
 
Internal Shell documents leaked to Greenpeace and released last
March show that Shell has pumped 487.5 million barrels of
production water contaminated with crude oil, solvents and other
chemicals into the Midyat aquifer between 1973 and 1994. Shell
sold these oil fields to Perenco last December. The Shell
"Midyat Adsorption Study" said that an additional 172.3 million
barrels of polluted water will be injected into the aquifer by
the end of 2001. Perenco is clearly responsible for this
additional pollution.
 
Perenco plc is an international oil and gas operating company
formed by merging the two companies, Kelt Energy plc and
Perenco. It is based in London and Paris with exploration and
production interests in the US, Britain, Colombia, Gabon and
Cameroon.
 
"Perenco's main business strategy has been to buy unprofitable
oil fields and drilling assets from big multinationals like
Shell. The company then operates the new business at a profit
after staff and operating costs to a minimum," said Hullu.
"Company officials boast that they operate with 50 per cent of
the original staff major and without a substantial number of
expatriates, and that they are not afraid to make themselves
unpopular with other oil companies, contractors, or government
departments." 
 
One of the leaked Shell documents described operations at the
oil fields near Diyarbakir that are now controlled By Perenco
and where the latest accident occurred. The "Technical Safety
Audit, N.V. Turske Shell, Production Diyarbakir,  Dated Sept
1991  Report EP 91-1810" said:
 
"...communications between management and operatives are

ineffective and management cannot control the safety of the work
site or set the standard for the operation....the quality of

technical work is inadequate and operating procedures such as
work permits, limiting access to facilities or restricting
smoking to safe areas are not properly enforced... the analysis
of the non-sabotage causes, shows corrosion to be increasing,
especially if "weather" failures, frozen pipe splitting, are
included as partly attributable to corrosion."
 
Greenpeace believes that these standards went even further down
after Perenco took over these oil fields from Shell in December
1995
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CALL: Berto Hullu in Istanbul,
++90-542-2317249; or Press Officer Fouad Hamdan , temporarily
based in Hamburg, ++49-40-30618447.  
You can also call the General Manager of Perenco in Ankara: Mr.
Daniel Colomb, 0090-312-4465663
 
ATTENTION EDITORS: You can order from Greenpeace the following
documents:  - Greenpeace Summary: Shell Double Standards and
Ethics: Polluting an aquifer in Turkey 
- Greenpeace report: The systematic pollution of aquifer
- Greenpeace report. Shell Operations in Turkey
- Greenpeace factsheet: NV Turkse Shell and Perenco
- Copies of all confidential Shell documents and memos
- Shell graph showing how Shell polluted Midyat aquifer
 
NOTES: 
Shell experts are quoted in the leaked reports as saying that
the solution is the injection of the contaminated water into the
Mardin oil reservoir, where the water comes from and which is
much deeper than the Midyat aquifer. The documents reveal that
in the "worst case" the aquifer could be polluted under
Diyarbakir between the years 2030 and 2060. The reported
"likely" case is contamination at Diyarbakir after 840-1000
years. One barrel is 159 liters. 487.5 million barrels are
77512.5 million liters. The injected water contained among other
substances crude oil, the demulsifier/solvent ShellSol-R 1:1 and
chloride (Source: "Shell Midyat Adsorption Study", no date).  
Many of the Shell documents leaked to Greenpeace confirm that
Shell managers knew that the injection into the aquifer is
against European Union and Turkish environmental regulations.
This practice will effect the lives of future generations in and
around Diyarbakir who, at some time in the future, will probably
have to get drinkable water from remote areas.
 

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