Dutch oil behemoth Royal Dutch Shell has published its sustainability report for 2006, which reviews the company's environmental and social performance. Shell said that the report underlines the company's commitment to help meet the world's current and future energy needs in environmentally and socially responsible ways.
Shell said that the company’s research and development investments, including field tests and involvement in third-party technologies, rose 50% in 2006, to $1.2 billion. During the year, Shell recruited over 3,000 technical professions and opened a major new technology center in Bangalore, India.
In addition, in 2006, Shell announced the first large-scale demonstration projects for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. These were the ZeroGen project in Australia and the Halten project in Norway, which would reduce carbon emissions by almost three million tonnes a year, Shell said.
Shell also said that the 108MW Noordzee Wind offshore wind farm, developed by Shell Wind and Nuon, started production in late 2006, and offshore planning permission was received for the 1,000MW London Array project, in which Shell is a partner, which would be the world’s largest wind farm.
Shell added that, in 2006, it made considerable progress in addressing community concerns about the Corrib natural gas pipeline and terminal in Country Mayo, Ireland, and welcomed Russian gas monopoly Gazprom’s entry as the major shareholder in the Sakhalin II project.
In addition, the report contains Basil Omiyi’s review of the rise in violence which led to the shutdown of half of Shell’s production in the Niger Delta. Mr Omiyi, Shell’s country chair in Nigeria, has expressed his hope for Shell’s reconciliation with the Ogoni people.
Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said: The global energy challenge has three parts: to provide the energy to fuel development and reduce poverty; to keep supplies secure from disruption; and to do this in socially and environmentally responsible ways.