Shell to Sea

Shell to Sea is an Irish organisation based in the parish of <a href="/facts/Kilcommon/zMLRjSNL">Kilcommon</a> in <a href="/facts/Erris/fbMJY5JC">Erris</a>, <a href="/facts/County_Mayo/eM9BEJUF">County Mayo</a>.
It opposes the proposed construction of a <a href="/facts/Natural_gas/9MYQ7NAP">natural gas</a> <a href="/facts/Gas_pipeline/gEmKcFhD">pipeline</a> through the parish, as well as the ongoing construction—by <a href="/facts/Royal_Dutch_Shell/2etvCXCf">Royal Dutch Shell</a>, <a href="/facts/Statoil/xhKT9fyQ">Statoil</a> and Vermilion Energy Trust—of a <a href="/facts/Oil_refinery/yeaW0UMv">refinery</a> at Bellanaboy intended to refine the natural gas from the <a href="/facts/Corrib_gas_field/wunxdKHR">Corrib gas field</a>. It proposes instead that the gas be refined at sea, rather than inland, as is done with Ireland's only other producing gas field off <a href="/facts/County_Cork/bhEYI189">County Cork</a>. Shell to Sea believes the proximity of a raw natural gas pipeline is a risk to local residents.
The three stated aims of the campaign, as cited on its website, are that "Any exploitation of the Corrib gas field be done in a safe way that will not expose the local community in Erris to unnecessary health, safety and environmental risks", "To renegotiate the terms of the Great Oil and Gas Giveaway, which sees Ireland's 10 billion <a href="/facts/Barrels_of_oil_equivalent/ypq59beF">barrels of oil equivalent</a> off the West Coast go directly to the oil companies, with the Irish State retaining a 0% share, no energy security of supply and only 25% tax on profits against which all costs can be deducted" and "To seek justice for the human rights abuses suffered by Shell to Sea campaigners due to their opposition to Shell's proposed inland refinery".
Incidents of note include the 2005 jailing of the <a href="/facts/Rossport_Five/MxXJ0utV">Rossport Five</a> and the public outcry that followed, the 2007 <a href="/facts/Goldman_Environmental_Prize/WE5QEkqq">Goldman Environmental Prize</a> received by <a href="/facts/Willie_Corduff/XnSIFq7A">Willie Corduff</a> (one of the five), local fisherman Pat O'Donnell's laying of 800 crab pots at sea and <a href="/facts/Maura_Harrington/UA7tmuM7">Maura Harrington</a>'s hunger strike against the <a href="/facts/Allseas/UgUb1WPq">Allseas</a> pipe-laying ship <a href="/facts/Solitaire_(ship)/TX2tlEIn">Solitaire</a> in 2008, an <a href="/facts/Willie_Corduff/XnSIFq7A">alleged assault on Corduff</a> in 2009 which was condemned by <a href="/facts/Desmond_Tutu/cXo1jIbl">Desmond Tutu</a>, the 2011 "rape tape" scandal when <a href="/facts/Garda%C3%AD/HrWDVnGj">Gardaí</a> (police) accidentally filmed themselves joking about the imagined rape of two female protestors after arresting them, and the reports of gifts of alcohol worth tens of thousands of euros from Shell to the Gardaí, which broke in 2013.

Shell to Sea open-in-new

Shell to Sea