Table Of ContentShell, Greenpeace and
the Brent Spar
Grant Jordan
Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar
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Shell, Greenpeace and
the Brent Spar
Grant Jordan
Professor of Po/itics
Ullivcrsity o(A/Jmlem
* © Grant Jordan 2001
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-74546-5
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First published 2001 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-41047-7 ISBN 978-1-4039-0529-1 (eBook)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jordan, A. G.
Shell, Greenpeace, and the Brent Spar / Grant Jordan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Oil storage tanks-Decommissioning-North Sea Region.
2. Oil storage tanks-Environmental aspects-North Sea Region.
3. Environmental policy-Decision making. 4. Shell Oil Company
-Decision making. 5. Greenpeace Environmental Trust. 6. Brent
Spar (Oil storage tank) I. Titte.
TN871.4 .J67 2001
363.738'2'0916336-dc21
2001035435
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Contents
List of tab/es andf igures
VI
Preface
Vll
1. Introduction: the Brent Spar Background 1
2. Three Styles ofDecision-making 26
3. De-commissioning Decisions:
Unsuccessful Consultation? 75
4. The Battle to Define the Problem 106
5. Direct Action and Indirect Consequences 145
6. Science and Decision-making 191
7. The Spar and OSP AR: Linking the Decisions 230
8. General Conclusions 276
9. The Implications for Democracy:
Single Issue Politics versus Corporate Power 348
Bibliography 375
Index 380
v
Tables
5.1 Press coverage in Britain 161
5.2 Brent Spar Protest (Germany) 171
8.1 Brent Spar: What Public Concern? 284
8.2 Press interest in Britain 286
9.1 Approval oftype ofpolitical protest 355
9.2 Effectiveness of communication 359
9.3 Prestige (ofmajor institutions) with the public 360
Figures
5.1 Brent Spar Media Response (Germany) 176
5.2 TV attention (Germany) 177
vi
Preface
This project attracted me as it reeorded events that exhibited a
variety of features of the poliey process that 1 had previously
addressed. It allowed me the indulgenee of revisiting an interest in
eonsultation (still a neglected topie). The exereise yielded a
spectaeularly elose version of a poliey eommunity for whieh 1 was
happy to adopt Baumgartner and Iones' term 'poliey monopoly'.
The case also indieated that we should not simply assume that the
mobilisation of a wide range of eompeting groups means there is an
issue network: the issue is not how many groups are making noise,
but how many are influeneing the deeision. In the Brent Spar
example the British protest simply produeed a macho determination
at Governmentallevel not to change poliey.
The case allowed me to allude to the decline of parties in
modern poliey making and the importanee of sectoral poliey
making. It was an example where many ob servers seemed eontent
that this was a ease, for good or ill, of interest group power. My
argument is that an explanation simply resting on the interest group
dimension is too bald. The research allowed me to trawl the US
literature on poliey making for material for a theoretical infusion to
rather malnourished UK aeeounts of group activity
This project also led me to some new terrain and, as noted
above, espeeially let me benefit enormously from the work of Frank
Baumgartner and Bryan Iones who often seem to have captured
with eleganee in 1993 poorly pereeived observations and tentative
thoughts that pretended to originality in 200l. 1 also (belatedly)
benefited through engagement with the social eonstruction
literature: this was through the academie influence of Sara
Davidson.
Those who note that some participants active in the events
were connected with Aberdeen University, as I am myself, may be
led to think this account is partial simply on that basis. That would
ignore the unfortunate reality of departmental walls and limited
time. I know colleagues here eould have improved this. Save for the
encouragement I got from Professor Graeme Simpson and Peter
Meenan, they did not get the opportunity.
vii
Thanks to those in Greenpeace, Marine Laboratory, DTI
Oil and Gas Directorate, UKOOA, Shell (and especially Graham
Precious ofthe Offshore Decommissioning Project) who responded
to requests for assistance and the opportunity to correct any
misperceptions on my part. To those who didn't - too late. Tony
Rice and Paula Owen have produced a book on Decommissioning
the Brent Spar and Chris Rose has produced The Turning 0/ the
Spar. I have received generous help from them and do not see this
volume as direct competition to their very different accounts.
In terms of the production of the book lanet Michaelsen
was super cheerful and super efficient. Lesley Steward greatly
improved the appearance of the text and remaining flaws are
decidedly mine. Linda Stevenson helped remedy my weaknesses in
footnoting, haphazard cutting and pasting, and all the other features
of a working style that are so useful in showing post graduates
faults to avoid. In the last push to publication she made the
difference.
Thanks to all the above, but above all to a retired oil man. I
hope I have 'read' the Brent Spar events more accurately than I
initially summed up Rod Smith. His helpfulness is unfailing; and
his commitment is to nothing and no one other than the truth.
viii
1. Introduction: the Brent Spar Background
This book may seem to some to be a large undertaking over a minor
oil industry decision about the disposal of a redundant facility, but
the significance of the events described in this book is indicated by
the following quotations - selected from a lengthy list of similar
sentiments:
Brent Spar will enter history as the symbol of our failure to
establish our position and connect in a meaningful way with
a wider audience (Heinz Rothermund,l Managing Director,
Shell Expro, Society of Petroleum Engineers Conference, 15
April 1997).
When the definitive history of environmentalism is written in
the next century, the moment when a group of activists took
over a pensioned-off oil platform in the North Sea may weIl
merit a chapter all to itself The story of the Brent Spar, its
occupation by Greenpeace, its re-taking by Shell, the
eventual abandonment of plans to dump it deep in the
Atlantic (to the fury of the Government and the disbelief of
many scientists and pundits) has already entered
contemporary lore ... most people agree that, after the Brent
Spar, nothing will quite be the same again. Ostensibly, Brent
Spar was about the disposal of a huge amount of mbbish ...
But it was also a modem morality tale played out on our
television screens and in the pages of our newspapers
(Nicholson-Lord, 1997).
We are going to change. We have learned that for certain
decisions, your [public] agreement is just as irnportant as the
opinion of experts or the approval of the authorities ... it is
not enough for adecision to conform to laws and
international mIes ... Acceptance by society is needed too
(Shell Germany, apology to customers, 27 lune 1995).
