The grounding of Royal Dutch Shell plc's Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Kulluk on the eastern coast of Sitkalidak Island, Alaska, in late December 2012 was mainly due to a failure of personnel to assess and manage the risks of towing the rig in heavy seas, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said in a report on the incident issued Thursday.
The South-South Reawakening Group (SSRG) has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and its partner, TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria Limited of allegedly conniving to violate the Nigerian local content law in order to “load” NNPC an extra $107,500 daily cost in hiring an operational rig for the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 jointly operated by the two firms.
Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited has denied engaging in contracts fraud and multi-billion dollars corruption with some top management staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. The company also vowed to sue a Lagos based company, Palmeron over a statement credited to a group, Concerned Citizens of Nigeria. Tirex accused the company of acting under the group to write malicious and defamatory stories against it.