This looks like a LOS thread but anyway, do remember that Shell and others have spend billions on exploration in the Irish Sea. The cost of keeping a small exploration platform at sea (without it doing any drilling) can run to over a million euro a day. The cost of drilling one hole can run to over a hundred million euro (holes can be kilometres deep into seabed that is under tens of thousands of meter of water). That’s not to justify the actions of Ray Bourke but it wasn’t quite a free lunch for Shell.