News Articles
| NIGERIA: Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it by John Vidal, The Guardian (UK) May 30th, 2010 With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. More oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the current BP/Transocean oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. |
| US: Nature Conservancy faces potential backlash from ties with BP by Joe Stephens, Washington Post May 24th, 2010 The Nature Conservancy faces a problem: a potential backlash as its supporters learn that BP and the world's largest environmental organization long ago forged a relationship that has lent BP an Earth-friendly image and helped fund the Conservancy. The crude emanating from BP's well threatens to befoul a number of alliances between energy conglomerates and environmental nonprofits. |
| US: Oil Hits Home, Spreading Arc of Frustration by Campbell Robertson, Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder, New York Times May 24th, 2010 More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. The disaster underscores the enduring laxity of federal regulation of offshore operations and has shown the government to be almost wholly at the mercy of BP and of Transocean, the company leasing the rig. |
| WORLD: Disaster Plans Lacking at Deep Rigs by Ben Casselman and Guy Chazen, Wall Street Journal May 17th, 2010 Dealing with a deep-sea spill is a a problem that spans the industry, whose major players include Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell and Petróleo Brasileiro SA. Without adequately planning for trouble, the oil business has focused on developing experimental equipment and techniques to drill in ever deeper waters, according to a Wall Street Journal examination. |
| US: U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits by Ian Urbina, New York Times May 13th, 2010 The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. |
| UK/CANADA: Tar sands crude is reaching British petrol stations, Greenpeace says by Terry Macalister, The Guardian (UK) May 9th, 2010 While City investors have begun to question the role of companies such as BP and Shell in the tar sands business, a new report by Greenpeace claims British motorists are unwitting users of diesel and petrol derived from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada. The carbon-heavy production methods involved make tar sands extraction particularly damaging to the environment. |
| US: BP touts itself as 'green,' but faces PR disaster with 'BP oil spill' by Paul Farhi, Washington Post May 6th, 2010 Ever careful of its public image, BP has been careful not to invoke its name in regard to the massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "We refer to it as Gulf of Mexico response," said Andrew Gowers, the company's spokesman. The name of a disaster can be critical, both as a historic matter and the more immediate matters of image, public relations and legal liability. |
| US: FBI Probes Explosion in West Virginia Mine by Kris Maher and Siobhan Hughes, Wall Street Journal April 30th, 2010 The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal probe of the deadly explosion at a Massey Energy Co. mine in West Virginia in early April that killed 29 miners, according to people familiar with the matter. In a statement on Friday Massey Energy said, "Massey has no knowledge of criminal wrongdoing." |
| US: BP Is Criticized Over Oil Spill, but U.S. Missed Chances to Act by Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton, New York Times April 30th, 2010 The Obama administration began Friday to publicly chastise BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials initially seemed to underestimate the threat of a leak, just as BP did last year when it told the government such an event was highly unlikely. |
| US: Oil Spill’s Blow to BP’s Image May Eclipse Costs by Clifford Krauss , New York Times April 29th, 2010 BP says that the offshore drilling accident that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico could cost the company several hundred million dollars. Nobody really knows whether the oil giant is being too conservative about the cost for the April 20 accident, which some experts say could end up as the biggest oil spill in history. |
| BURMA: Pressure Mounts on Energy Giant Chevron to Disclose Revenue by Marwaan Macan-Markar , Inter Press Service (IPS) April 29th, 2010 When shareholders of the multinational company Chevron gather for their annual meeting in the U.S. city of Houston in late May, they will come face to face with Naing Htoo, whose community has suffered due to the exploits of the energy giant in military-ruled Burma. |
| AFRICA: E Guinea ejected from industry clean-up body by Tom Burgis, Financial Times April 16th, 2010 A pioneering initiative aimed at cleaning up the oil and mining industries has ejected Equatorial Guinea from its ranks. The board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary coalition of companies, governments, donors and civil society groups, had been under pressure from activists on granting extensions to 17 states that had missed a deadline to have audits of their industries independently verified. |
| US: Deaths at West Virginia Mine Raise Issues About Safety by Ian Urbina and Michael Cooper, New York Times April 6th, 2010 Rescue workers began the precarious task Tuesday of removing explosive methane gas from the coal mine where at least 25 miners died the day before. The mine owner’s -- Massey Energy Company -- dismal safety record, along with several recent evacuations of the mine, left federal officials and miners suggesting that Monday’s explosion might have been preventable. |
| CANADA/CHINA: Canada looks to China to exploit oil sands rejected by US by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian (UK) February 14th, 2010 Canada, faced with growing political pressure over the extraction of oil from its highly polluting tar sands, has begun courting China and other Asian countries to exploit the resource. The move comes as US firms are turning away from tar sands because of its heavy carbon footprint and damage to the landscape. |
| US/IRAQ: U.S. Companies Join Race on Iraqi Oil Bonanza by TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times January 13th, 2010 American companies have been arriving in Iraq to pursue an expected multibillion-dollar bonanza of projects to revive the country’s petroleum industry. But there are questions about the Iraqi government’s capacity to police the companies. “These are for-profit concerns and they are trying to make as much money as they can,” said Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch. |
| NIGERIA: Ex-militant leader heads SPDC’s patrol team by Chris Ejim, Nigerian Compass January 8th, 2010 Authorities of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have unveiled a new security strategy for securing oil pipelines and platforms within the Niger Delta region. Shell has appointed former MEND militant commander, Eris Paul, and his company, Eristex Pipeline Patrol, to secure oil facilities in the Southern Ijaw area of the Delta. |
| GHANA: Corruption probe into sale of Ghana oil block by William Wallis, Martin Arnold and Brooke Masters, Financial Times January 7th, 2010 US and Ghanaian authorities are investigating corruption allegations involving a Texas oil company and the local partner that helped it secure control of the Ghanaian oil block that yielded one of Africa’s biggest recent discoveries. The case risks complicating efforts by Texas company Kosmos to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field to ExxonMobil in a deal valued at $4bn. |
| CHINA: Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively by Keith Bradsher, New York Times December 26th, 2009 Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. Most of these come from China. “In many places, the mining is abused,” said Wang Caifeng, the top rare-earths industry regulator at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China. |
| US/ECUADOR: New nonprofit uses Web to pressure Chevron by David A. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle November 16th, 2009 Retired retail executive Richard Goldman was astonished when he heard about the $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador. SO he has created a nonprofit group, Ethos Alliance, that will use social-networking tools to spread word of the case and put pressure on Chevron. |
| UK: Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading by Ashley Seager, The Guardian (UK) November 5th, 2009 The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn. In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date "cap and trade" carbon markets have done little to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption. |
| SOUTHEAST ASIA: Sizing up palm oil by David Grant, Christian Science Monitor November 2nd, 2009 While it doesn’t sound (and need not be) nefarious, activist groups worldwide like the Rainforest Action Network argue that the production of palm oil is currently harming rain forests in Southeast Asia, orangutans, and the environment. |
| FRANCE: France jails 'Angolagate' power players by Pascale Juilliard, The Times Online (South Africa) October 27th, 2009 A French court slapped jail terms Tuesday on the main players in a network that smuggled arms to war-torn Angola and included an ex-minister and the son of the late president Francois Mitterrand. |
| FRANCE: French nuclear plant reveals plutonium level discrepancies by AFP/Reuters, Deutsche Welle October 15th, 2009 The French government has demanded answers from a nuclear research facility after nearly triple the registered amount of plutonium was discovered there during its dismantling this summer. |
| UK: Kingsnorth power station plans shelved by E.ON by Mark Tran, The Guardian (UK) October 7th, 2009 E.ON, the German energy group, has effectively thrown in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, UK, blaming the recession. Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest. |
| ECUADOR: Chevron Offers Evidence in Ecuador Bribery Case by Reuters, New York Times September 7th, 2009 On Monday Chevron said it gave Ecuadorean authorities evidence of a bribery scheme linked to a $27 billion environmental damages lawsuit against the oil company. Last week, the judge hearing the case, Juan Núńez, recused himself. The Amazon Defense Coalition said the recusal did not “change the overwhelming evidence against Chevron.” |
| US: Cash-rich SAIC hits the acquisition trail by Sami Lais, Washington Technology August 6th, 2009 Making a big splash in recent weeks, Science Applications International Corp. bought two companies, adding new capabilities in cybersecurity, energy and disaster recovery — areas in which government spending is expected to grow. |
| FRANCE: In French Inquiry, a Glimpse at Corporate Spying by DAVID JOLLY, New York Times August 1st, 2009 A corporate espionage case unfolding in France involves some of the biggest French companies, including Électricité de France, the world’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, and Vivendi, the media and telecommunications conglomerate. The story has the elements of a corporate thriller: a cast of characters that includes former French spies and military men, an American cycling champion, Greenpeace activists and a dogged judge. |
| UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giant by Danny Fortson, Sunday Times (UK) July 19th, 2009 In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it. |
| UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giant by Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times (UK) July 19th, 2009 In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it. |
| UK: Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors by Tim Webb, The Guardian June 26th, 2009 In another example of the revolving door between industry and government, the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is recruiting more than a dozen project managers to speed up its review of new nuclear reactor designs – even though those managers work for the companies hoping to build the reactors. |
| ECUADOR: Chevron's Amazon 'fake cleanup' trial United Press International June 25th, 2009 A report submitted this week to a court in Ecuador finding dangerous levels of contamination at oil wells Chevron says it cleaned up in the 1990s is expected to reinforce a fraud indictment against two Chevron lawyers in a $27.3 billion environmental lawsuit against the oil company. |
| IRAQ: Big Oil Ready for Big Gamble in Iraq by Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal June 24th, 2009 Next week, Iraqi officials will auction off oil contracts to foreign companies for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry three decades ago. Some 120 companies expressed interest in bidding for the contracts, and thirty-five companies qualified. They include Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Italy's Eni SpA, Russia's Lukoil and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec. |
| US: NRC Cites Utility Shortfalls by Rebecca Smith, Wall Street Journal June 20th, 2009 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told six utility companies they have until year-end to explain plans to remedy shortfalls in nuclear decommissioning funds. The license holders receiving notice -- Exelon Corp., Entergy Corp., Constellation Energy Group Inc., FPL Group, First Energy and Tennessee Valley Authority -- include some of the industry's biggest names. |
| AFRICA: Battle to Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbs by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times June 9th, 2009 The fight against corruption in Africa is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. The search is on for more effective ways to tackle corruption, including intensified legal efforts to prosecute multinational corporations that pay the bribes and reclaim loot that African political elites have stashed abroad. |
| NIGERIA: Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case by Jad Mouawad, New York Times June 8th, 2009 Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, a striking sum given it has denied any wrongdoing. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shell’s most prominent critic at the time in Nigeria, was hanged in 1995 by that country’s military regime after protesting Shell's environmental practices in the oil-rich delta, especially in his native Ogoni region. |
| INDONESIA: Scramble for coal assets in Indonesia by Sundeep Tucker and John Aglionby, Financial Times June 7th, 2009 Some of the world’s largest energy groups are scrambling to acquire coal mining assets in Indonesia as family-run conglomerates consider divestments to raise cash. Peabody Energy, the US coal miner, and Xstrata, the Anglo-Swiss miner, are believed to be among those interested. Industry analysts said Chinese, South Korean, Indian and Middle Eastern companies were also scouring Indonesia for assets. |
| GHANA: Energy groups lured by Ghana’s Kosmos by Carola Hoyos, Financial Times June 4th, 2009 Big international energy groups and state-owned oil companies from China and India are circling Kosmos Energy for its Ghanaian oilfield assets, which have been valued at $3bn-$6bn by analysts. The sale could open an oil corridor off the west African coast, stretching as far north-west as Sierra Leone. |
| FINLAND: In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble by James Kanter, New York Times May 28th, 2009 As the Obama administration tries to steer America toward cleaner sources of energy, it would do well to consider the cautionary tale of this new-generation nuclear reactor site. The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. But things have not gone as planned. |
| US: Chevron annual meeting heats up over Ecuador suit by Jordan Robertson, Washington Post May 27th, 2009 In a combative and sometimes colorful annual meeting, Chevron's CEO and chairman exchanged barbs with activists over pollution in the Amazon rain forest and the company's human rights record. The nation's second-largest oil company is awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador that could come with a $27 billion price tag. |
| US: U.S. Cracks Down on Corporate Bribes by DIONNE SEARCEY, Wall Street Journal May 26th, 2009 The Justice Department is increasing its prosecutions of alleged acts of foreign bribery by U.S. corporations, forcing them to take costly steps to defend against scrutiny. The crackdown under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA -- a post-Watergate law largely dormant for decades -- now extends across five continents and penetrates entire industries. |
| US: Protesters await Chevron meeting by David R. Baker, Houston Chronicle May 26th, 2009 When Chevron Corp. shareholders gather Wednesday morning in the company’s suburban San Ramon headquarters for their annual meeting, the protesters will be waiting. A coalition of environmental and human rights groups offered a preview Tuesday when they released their own alternate annual report for Chevron. Dubbed “The True Cost of Chevron,” it accuses the company of polluting the Amazon, Canada, Kazakhstan and Richmond, as well as collaborating with repressive regimes in Burma and Nigeria. |
| EUROPE: Greenpeace warns on Shell oil sands projects by Carola Hoyos, Financial Times May 18th, 2009 A study by Greenpeace and several other environmental groups has concluded that Royal Dutch Shell's carbon intensity will rise 85 per cent as it develops its oil and gas fields in the coming years. Campaigners warn Shell’s investors that this disadvantages the company vis a vis its peers as US and European policymakers move towards a broad cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions. Shell’s growing carbon intensity stems from its resource base, which is heavily made up of Canadian oil and Nigerian gas. |
| UK: Shell faces investor fury over pay, pollution and human rights by Terry Macalister, The Guardian May 17th, 2009 |
| ECUADOR: In Ecuador, Resentment of an Oil Company Oozes by SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS, New York Times May 14th, 2009 Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells in Ecuador's northeastern jungle. Texaco’s roughnecks are long gone, but black gunk from the pits seeps to the topsoil here and in dozens of other spots. These days the only Chevron employees who visit the former oil fields do so escorted by bodyguards toting guns. They represent one side in a bitter fight that is developing into the world’s largest environmental lawsuit, with $27 billion in potential damages. |
| WORLD: When Chevron Hires Ex-Reporter to Investigate Pollution, Chevron Looks Good by Brian Stelter, New York Times May 10th, 2009 When Chevron learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador, it hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view. An Ecuadorean judge is expected to rule soon on whether Chevron owes up to $27 billion in damages. |
| UK: Shell at risk of investor pay revolt by Kate Burgess and Ed Crooks, Financial Times May 5th, 2009 Royal Dutch Shell is facing the risk of a shareholder rebellion over pay for the second successive year after two influential investor advisory groups raised concerns about discretionary pay awards made to board-level executives. |
| CHINA: Slump Tilts Priorities of Industry in China by Jonathan Ansfield, New York Times April 18th, 2009 Less than a year ago, officials pressed mines and factories in northern China to shut down or move away to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics. Now, amid the global economic downturn, priorities have shifted. Cumbersome environmental reviews have been accelerated, and China’s powerful state oil companies are pushing hard to postpone nationwide rollout of clean air standards due to the billions of dollars required to invest in their refineries to produce clean diesel. |
| US/NIGERIA: Shell: corporate impunity goes on trial by George Monbiot, The Guardian April 7th, 2009 Multinationals accused of human rights abuses can no longer feel safe now that the oil giant is facing allegations of complicity in the execution of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. |
| US: Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obama’s Green Lead by Jad Mouawad, New York Times April 7th, 2009 The Obama administration seeks the most ambitious transformation of energy policy in a generation. But Big Oil is not on board. Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power, and focus its alternative energy efforts on biofuels. BP, a company that has spent nine years saying it was moving “beyond petroleum,” has been getting back to petroleum since 2007, paring back its renewable program. The list goes on. |
| AFRICA/CHINA: As Chinese Investment in Africa Drops, Hope Sinks by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times March 25th, 2009 As global commodity prices have plummeted and several of China’s partners in Africa have stumbled deeper into chaos, China has backed away from some of its riskiest and most aggressive plans. China has sought to secure minerals in Africa through agreements to build huge projects in exchange for minerals. African governments are now realizing that these deals are loans against future revenue, and falling prices could leave them saddled with debt. |
| CANADA: The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom by Robert Kunzig, National Geographic March 1st, 2009 Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions. Syncrude and Suncor are two of the largest producers of bitumen; Canada is now the largest importer of oil to the United States, with tar sands exploitation slated to increase rapidly over the next five years. |
| UK, ITALY: Italian business body hits at Brown by Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times February 9th, 2009 In the context of global debate around the unfettered free-market system, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown comes under fire from an Italian business association for not reining in wildcat labor strikes at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire. |
| SWITZERLAND: Davos Scales Back Glitz by Associated Press, New York Times January 25th, 2009 The economic crisis that emerged out the collapse of securities based on shaky U.S. mortgages poses challenges for the Davos World Economic Forum, an arena that has championed market-driven approaches. |
| US: Plant That Spilled Coal Ash Had Earlier Leak Problems by John M. Broder, New York Times January 8th, 2009 The chief executive of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the coal-burning power plant responsible for an enormous flood of coal ash in East Tennessee late last month, acknowledged Thursday that the plant’s containment ponds had leaked two other times in the last five years but had not been adequately repaired. |
| WORLD: Workforce deaths at Shell higher than for other western oil groups by Ed Crooks, Financial Times December 1st, 2008 Royal Dutch Shell last year suffered more workforce deaths than any other large western oil company. Two employees and 28 contractors were killed working for Shell in 2007. Nine of last year's deaths were in Nigeria, with two people killed in attacks on Shell facilities, and 10 in Russia. |
| CANADA/IRAQ: Drill, Garner, Drill by Anthony Fenton, Mother Jones November 24th, 2008 In the history of the Iraq War, one name is perhaps synonymous with the collapse of the Bush administration's hopes for a post-Saddam world: Retired Lt. General Jay M. Garner, who served as the first post-war administrator. This year, he and a small group of former US military leaders, officials, and lobbyists have quietly used their Kurdistan connections to help Canadian companies access some of the region's richest oil fields. |
| CANADA: OIL SANDS-PART 2: "Where I Come From Is Ground Zero" by Chris Arsenault, Inter Press Service (IPS) October 17th, 2008 Like many young people from Ft. Chipewayn, Mercredi knows the tar sands well; he spent four years making big money driving trucks at one of the mines. "I just walked off the job one night, I thought 'this is wrong, we're destroying our own land'," said Mercredi. |
| CANADA: OIL SANDS-PART 1: Showdown at Ft. McMoney by Chris Arsenault, Inter Press Service (IPS) October 16th, 2008 The sun rises in a bright, red line over flat land, small lakes, boreal forest and peat bogs as our small double engine plane bumps through early morning turbulence between Edmonton and Ft. McMurray, Canada. |
| US: More BP refinery doubts Journal Gazette October 7th, 2008 Smoke rises from the Whiting refinery now owned by BP. Federal regulators are questioning BP’s permit process. According to the EPA, the agency “now has information suggesting that BP may have begun a project to process Canadian crude oil at the refinery in 2005 without the proper permit.” |
| US: California's Number One Inland Oil Polluter in Trouble Again Enviroment News Service October 3rd, 2008 An oil company that state and federal officials have called California's number one inland oil polluter has failed to meet multiple deadlines to clean up leaks from settling ponds on one of its leases, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week took over partial cleanup operations to ensure they are completed before the rainy season. |
| U.S.: Great Place for the Oil Business by Stephen Leahy, Inter Press News Service (IPS) September 30th, 2008 Why do U.S. oil companies -- some of the most profitable corporations on the planet -- receive 20 to 40 billion dollars a year in subsidies from the U.S. government? |
| CANADA: High stakes in Canada’s vast oil-sands fields by George Tombs, Christian Science Monitor September 30th, 2008 Trillions of dollars’ worth of oil are present, but the environmental costs are high, too – and growing. |
| MALAYSIA: Murum Dam - Public Funds for Corporate Profit? by Anil Netto, Inter Press Service (IPS) September 27th, 2008 Who will foot the bill for the Murum resettlement? ''Is it Sarawak Energy or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the tax payer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified. |
| US: Martinez Shell Refinery To Pay $300,000 Penalty For Spill KTVU News September 25th, 2008 The operator of the Shell refinery in Martinez has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a civil lawsuit charging that the refinery negligently caused about 10 barrels of oil to spill into the Carquinez Strait in Martinez in 2006, according to the Contra Costa District Attorney's office. |
| WORLD: Oil Companies' "Self-Policing" a Dismal Failure by Alison Raphael, Inter Press News Service (IPS) September 24th, 2008 The intersection of human rights, the environment and corporate responsibility was highlighted today at a Capitol Hill hearing featuring activists from Burma and Nigeria who underlined the failure to date of "voluntary" controls over major oil companies operating in their countries. |
| ECUADOR: Chevron lawyers indicted in pollution case by David Baker, San Francisco Chronicle September 13th, 2008 Two Chevron Corp. lawyers fighting a landmark pollution lawsuit in Ecuador have been indicted by that country's prosecutor general, a move the company says proves the government is trying to tamper with the suit. |
| US: Halliburton Ex-Official
Pleads Guilty in Bribe Case
by RUSSELL GOLD, The Wall Street Journal September 4th, 2008 In a wide-ranging foreign-corruption investigation, fired former Halliburton Co. executive Albert J. "Jack" Stanley pleaded guilty to orchestrating more than $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian government officials. The bribes were used to win a contract to build a liquefied-natural-gas plant in Nigeria. |
| FRANCE: Pipe Break Causes Leak
Of Uranium at French Plant
Associated Press July 21st, 2008 Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipe at a nuclear site in southeastern France, the national nuclear-safety authority said Friday in the second leak discovered at a French site this month. |
| FRANCE: Areva mishandled uranium leak: safety body
by Joseph Tandy and Muriel Boselli, Reuters July 11th, 2008 France's nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Friday that Areva-subsidiary Socatri had poorly managed a leak of liquid containing uranium that occurred in southeastern France this week. |
| Iraq: U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times June 30th, 2008 The Bush administration has disclosed that U.S. advisors in Iraq played a key role in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies. The no-bid contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies. |
| US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist by Ed Pilkington, Guardian (UK) June 23rd, 2008 On June 23, James Hansen, a leading world climate scientist, called for the executives of major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy, to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature through actions like funding climate skeptics to undermine global consensus around combating climate change. |
| US: Bush administration files nuclear dump application by H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press June 3rd, 2008 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday he's confident the government's license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada will "stand up to any challenge anywhere." |
| US: Former Colo. nuke plant contractors ordered to pay $925M AP June 3rd, 2008 Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed that contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property. |
| BRAZIL: Businessman alleges Alstom paid bribes for Brazil project: report AFP May 29th, 2008 French engineering group Alstom allegedly paid nearly a million dollars in bribes in connection with a Brazilian energy plant, testimony from a Brazilian businessman reported in the press here said Thursday. |
| US: Exxon investors reject green initiatives by Andrew Clark, The Guardian May 29th, 2008 The world's biggest oil company emerged bruised but victorious from a bust-up with the billionaire Rockefeller family yesterday as an effort to foist green initiatives on ExxonMobil failed to capture wholehearted support from shareholders. |
| US: Rockefellers Seek Change at Exxon by CLIFFORD KRAUSS, The New York Times May 27th, 2008 The family members have thrown their support behind a shareholder rebellion that is ruffling feathers at Exxon Mobil, the giant oil company descended from John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. |
| US: Oil Industry, Lawmakers Aim
To Lift Bans on Drilling
by RUSSELL GOLD BEN CASSELMAN and STEPHEN POWER, Wall Street Journal May 23rd, 2008 Mounting concerns about global energy supply are fueling a drive by the oil industry and some U.S. lawmakers to end longstanding bans on domestic drilling put in place to protect environmentally sensitive areas. |
| UK: Shell 'selling suicide' by preferring tar sands to wind by Terry Macalister, The Guardian May 21st, 2008 Shell was accused yesterday of "selling suicide on the forecourt" by pressing ahead with tar sands operations in Canada and continuing to flare off excess gas in Nigeria while pulling out of renewable schemes such as the London Array - the world's largest offshore wind scheme. |
| RUSSIA: As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russia by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times May 11th, 2008 Gazprom and the Russian government have long had a close relationship, but the revolving door between them is spinning especially fast this year. But Gazprom also epitomizes the risks of state capitalism: waste and inefficiency. |
| INDONESIA: Indonesia's Commodity Boom Is a Mixed Bag by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal March 24th, 2008 Indonesia's economy is riding the recent wave of high global commodity prices. But local pressure is arising towards steel makers and power producers in China and India who have diverted coal supplies abroad by locking in 20-year supply contracts with Indonesian miners. |
| US: Pollution Is Called a Byproduct of a 'Clean' Fuel by BRENDA GOODMAN, The New York Times March 11th, 2008 The spills, at the Alabama Biodiesel Corporation plant outside this city about 17 miles from Tuscaloosa, are similar to others that have come from biofuel plants in the Midwest. The discharges, which can be hazardous to birds and fish, have many people scratching their heads over the seeming incongruity of pollution from an industry that sells products with the promise of blue skies and clear streams. |
| CHINA: Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post March 9th, 2008 The Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co. of Henan, China, is a green energy company, producing polysilicon for solar energy panels. But the byproduct -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards. |
| US: Alcoa Faces Allegation By Bahrain of Bribery
by GLENN R. SIMPSON, The Wall Street Journal February 28th, 2008 A company controlled by the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain accused Alcoa Corp. of a 15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery. |
| GLOBAL: 2 Reports At Odds On Biotech Crops by Rick Weiss, The Washington Post February 14th, 2008 Dueling reports released yesterday -- one by a consortium largely funded by the biotech industry and the other by a pair of environmental and consumer groups -- came to those diametrically different conclusions. |
| GLOBAL: False 'Green' Ads Draw Global Scrutiny
by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal January 30th, 2008 With companies eager to tout their "green" credentials to consumers, advertising watchdogs are stepping up efforts to rein in marketers that make false or exaggerated claims. |
| UK: Vestey's vegan grandson sees off Shell by Isabel Oakeshott, The Sunday Times (UK) January 27th, 2008 SHELL has abandoned its sponsorship of one of Britain’s most prestigious wildlife photography exhibitions after protests by environmental groups. |
| US: Duke Energy sued for alleged kickbacks New Mexico Business Weekly January 17th, 2008 Two lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Cincinnati accusing Duke Energy Corp. of overcharging tens of thousands of residential and business customers. |
| US: Protests Greet Nuclear Power Resurgence in US South by Matthew Cardinale, IPS January 14th, 2008 Residents and environmental activists are in a bitter dispute with large U.S. energy corporations and the federal government over the safety of nuclear power, as more than a dozen corporations plan to, or have filed, paperwork to open new nuclear power plants, primarily in the U.S. South. |
| NIGERIA: Inefficient Gas Flaring Remains Unchecked by Sam Olukoya, IPS January 10th, 2008 Some of the largest multinational oil companies in the world -- including the U.K. and Dutch owned Shell, the French company Total, and the American companies Mobil and Chevron -- are responsible for the bulk of the scores of gas flares burning in Nigeria. |
| EUROPE/RUSSIA: Gas pipeline stirs up Baltic fears by Tristana Moore, BBC News Online December 31st, 2007 Nord Stream, a consortium led by Russia's Gazprom, is building a new controversial pipeline under the Baltic Sea. |
| SOUTH KOREA: South Korea Arrests 2 Captains in Huge Oil Spill Agence France Press December 25th, 2007 The South Korean Coast Guard said Monday that it had arrested the captains of a barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industry and a tugboat that caused an oil spill this month, the nation’s worst. |
| EUROPE: Europe Proposes Binding Limits on Auto Emissions by James Kanter, New York Times December 20th, 2007 European Union officials told leading automakers to make deep cuts in tailpipe emissions of the cars they produce or face fines that could reach billions of euros. Companies including Volkswagen and Renault immediately promised a fight to weaken the proposed legislation. |
| UK: The Biggest Global Warming Crime in History by Cahal Milmo, Independent (UK) December 13th, 2007 BP is accused of investing a large sum of money to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using environmentally unsound methods. |
| US: Wary of Protests, Exxon Plans Natural Gas Terminal in the Atlantic by Jads Mouawad, New York Times December 12th, 2007 Exxon Mobil would like to build a $1 billion floating terminal for liquefied natural gas about 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey. |
| GLOBAL: Big Oil lets sun set on renewables
by Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK) December 11th, 2007 Shell, the oil company that recently trumpeted its commitment to a low carbon future by signing a pre-Bali conference communique, has quietly sold off most of its solar business. Rival BP decided last week to invest in the world's dirtiest oil production in Canada's tar sands, indicating that Big Oil might be giving up its flirtation with renewables and going back to its roots. |
| SINGAPORE: Neste to build $814 mln Singapore biofuel plant by Tarmo Virki, The Guardian November 30th, 2007 Finnish refiner Neste Oil is working to build the world's largest biodiesel plant amongst controversy over the environmental impact of palm oil plants. |
| FRANCE: China Deal Gives Lift to Revival of Fission by John Tagliabue, New York Times November 27th, 2007 Critics question recent deal between French nuclear power giant Areva and China's leading nuclear power company. |
| CHINA: China Shows High Interest in African Oil by Benoit Faucon, Wall Street Journal November 22nd, 2007 Royal Dutch Shell is considering selling interests in two Nigerian offshore oil blocks to China's Cnooc Ltd. as it restructures its business in the troubled region. |
| US: Law firm seeks nearly $700 mil for Enron pacts by Martha Graybow, Reuters November 21st, 2007 The law firm that helped win $7.2 billion in settlements for Enron investors is seeking nearly $700 million in legal fees for itself and other attorneys who handled the case, according to court documents. |
| US: Coal-Funded Ad Is Called Misleading
by Steven Mufson, Washington Post November 7th, 2007 A Kansas newspaper ad paid for by coal mining giant Peabody Energy uses Putin, Chavez and Ahmadinejad to counter calls for cleaner energy. |
| US: BP fined $373m by US government BBC News October 26th, 2007 Oil giant BP has been fined a total of $373m (Ł182m) by the US Department of Justice for environmental crimes and committing fraud. |
| US: US lawmakers plan squeeze on Chevron in Myanmar AFP October 24th, 2007 Proposed sanctions introduced in the US House of Representatives would pressure US energy giant Chevron to pull its investment from Myanmar, which rights activists say is helping prop up the ruling military junta. |
| US: BP Settlements Seen on Safety and Price Cases by Stephen Labaton and Lowell Bergman, NY Times October 24th, 2007 The British energy company BP, tarnished by a string of costly legal problems, is preparing to settle accusations that it was criminally indifferent to worker safety and that it manipulated energy prices. |
| RUSSIA: Siberian boom threatens traditions by Tom Esslemont, BBC News October 8th, 2007 Russia is forging ahead with ambitious energy projects in eastern Siberia, but the indigenous Evenk people are complaining that their age-old way of life is in danger. |
| BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Grows by Michael Diebert, IPS October 4th, 2007 The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders. |
| FRANCE: Total: No Capital Expenditures in Myanmar Associated Press September 27th, 2007 Total SA, reacting Thursday to comments by French President Sarkozy urging the oil and gas giant to refrain from new investment in Myanmar, said it had not made any capital expenditure there since 1998. The military junta that rules Myanmar this week escalated its efforts to repress pro-democracy demonstrations led by thousands of Buddhist monks. |
| US: Green group attacks oil giant on climate research by Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited September 26th, 2007 An environmental group today took aim at ExxonMobil with the launch of an online video attacking the oil giant's green credentials. |
| US: Software maker admits to taking bribes by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Financial Times September 25th, 2007 An oil and gas services company owned by a US buy-out firm on Monday admitted it sought to bribe officials connected to several nationally owned oil companies to improve sales of its software, including Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas and subsidiaries of China’s CNOOC. |
| COLOMBIA: Drummond Union: Govt Muffles Key Witness by Frank Bajak, Forbes.com July 24th, 2007 The union activists suing U.S. coal company Drummond Co. Inc. in Alabama in the 2001 murders of three labor leaders say deliberate foot-dragging by Colombian authorities is preventing the jury from hearing their star witness. Concerned by the delay, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Congress wrote Colombia's vice president last week asking him to intercede. |
| ITALY: Devil's Advocate by Daniel Fisher, Forbes July 24th, 2007 Italian oil giant Eni has a long history of cutting deals with anyone, and of accusations of corruption and bribery. Now that its future hangs on Russia and its notorious reputation in the energy market, has Eni finally met its match? |
| NIGERIA: Tycoon exits Nigerian oil deals BBC News July 19th, 2007 Nigerian consortium Bluestar, led by tycoon Aliko Dangote, has pulled out of a deal to take stakes in oil refineries after protests by trade unionists. |
| NETHERLANDS: Shell ordered to withdraw 'misleading' Dutch ad that made environmental claims by James Kanter, The International Herald Tribune July 5th, 2007 Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered to withdraw an advertisement in the Netherlands that sought to portray the oil giant as environmentally friendly, and British authorities said Thursday they had opened a formal investigation in the case. |
| SAO TOME: No Oil Yet, but African Isle Finds Slippery Dealings by Barry Meier and Jad Mouawad, The New York Times July 2nd, 2007 The experience of Săo Tomé, a poor country that supports itself by selling cocoa and commemorative stamps featuring celebrities like Elvis Presley and Brigitte Bardot, shows how just the hint of oil can set off a scramble for riches. |
| INDONESIA: Mud Volcano Sullies Top Investment Firms
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press News Service (IPS) June 21st, 2007 Environmental campaigners are urging several heavyweight investment firms, including Credit Suisse, Barclays, Fortis Group and Merrill Lynch, to shoulder some responsibility for a catastrophic mud volcano on the Indonesian island of Java that resulted from a gas project the firms helped fund. |
| US: Ex-Enron Executive Sentenced to Prison by Bloomberg News, The New York Times June 19th, 2007 The former chief of the Internet unit at Enron has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for helping mislead investors in the fraud that sent Enron, the world's largest energy trader, into bankruptcy. |
| US: Politics Forcing Detroit to Back New Fuel Rules by Micheline Maynard, The New York Times June 19th, 2007 This week, with a vote possible in the Senate on an energy plan, car companies retreated from their longstanding argument that any legislation to increase fuel economy standards would rob them of profits, force them to lay off workers and deprive consumers of the vehicles they wanted to buy. They are now lobbying for a modest increase in mileage standards, a position already adopted by Toyota, in the hopes of silencing calls for even tougher targets. |
| BRUSSELS:Europe Moves to Make Big Polluters Pay for Emissions by Stephen Castle, The New York Times June 4th, 2007 Europe moves towards making significant changes to its emissions-trading system that could force large polluters to pay for most, if not all, permits to produce climate-changing gases. |
| JAPAN: NEC workers fake orders worth Y2.2bn by Mariko Sanchanta , Financial Times May 29th, 2007 NEC, the Japanese electronics company, Tuesday said that 10 rogue employees placed fake orders worth Y2.2bn ($200m) and accepted kickbacks worth Y500m, which they spent on personal wining and dining. |
| US: Investigators eye remodeling at Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens Associated Press May 29th, 2007 Federal agents are looking into Sen. Ted Stevens' role in the ongoing investigation into the remodeling of his Alaska home, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the probe. |
| INDONESIA: Blood boils as mud volcano swallows homes Sydney Morning Herald May 26th, 2007 One year ago this Tuesday, a gas-exploration well part-owned by the Australian mining giant Santos blew, sending a geyser of mud and toxic gas into the air. Nearby villages and factories were flooded, then a big highway and railway were covered, and later East Java's main gas pipeline ruptured. |
| US: Governor vetoes liquefied gas proposal
by Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times May 19th, 2007 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday vetoed a proposal to build a terminal for importing liquefied natural gas 20 miles off the coast of Malibu, but he kept the door open for future LNG projects if they are environmentally sensitive. |
| SUDAN: China accused of supporting Sudan rights abuse Agence France Presse May 18th, 2007 A leading opponent of a Chinese-financed dam in Sudan accused Beijing on Friday of fueling widespread human rights abuses, as Khartoum moved to relocate 70,000 villagers to make way for the project. |
| US: Chevron Seen Settling Case on Iraq Oil by Claudio Gatti and Jad Mouwad, New York Times May 8th, 2007 Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators. |
| CAMBODIA: Will oil wealth keep Cambodia afloat, or drown it? by Seth Mydans, International Herald Tribune May 3rd, 2007 For many other poor countries, like Nigeria and Chad, oil has been a poisoned bonanza, paradoxically dragging them into deeper poverty and corruption in what some call the oil curse. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: U.S. Firm Pleads Guilty In Bribery Case by Nikola Krastev, Radio Free Europe April 30th, 2007 The Texas-based oil-services company Baker Hughes pled guilty on April 26 in a U.S. federal court to violating U.S. antibribery provisions, and agreed to pay a fine of $44 million. |
| US: Fresno a player in debate over nuclear power by Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle April 8th, 2007 Fresno, a fast-growing former farming community popularly associated with raisins, is seeking a higher-tech image -- as the future home of a nuclear power plant that could supply power for 1.6 million to 2 million homes. |
| JAPAN: Nuclear scandal may juice power prices by Shigeru Sato, Bloomberg April 4th, 2007 Japan's electricity prices may surge because safety coverups could prompt the government to order more nuclear reactors closed, Mizuho Investors Securities says. |
| FRANCE: Total CEO summoned by SEC on Iran deal Reuters April 3rd, 2007 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have summoned the chief executive of French energy giant Total SA to explain the group's activities in Iran, a French newspaper said on Tuesday. |
| BURMA: Shackles, torture, executions: inside Burma's jungle gulags
by Dan McDougall, The Observer March 25th, 2007 There is no real dissent here in Rangoon. People are too scared to be members of any democratic movement. We are all just victims, people like me who are trying to get their lives back.' Ko Min, 47, his wife and two sons were swept up with hundreds of others in a military raid on their village close to the city of Bagan in 2005. The family were put to work, clearing jungle, digging latrines and an irrigation system for a military camp outside Mandalay. (mentions Zarubezhneft oil company) |
| US: Halliburton to move headquarters to Dubai
by Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle March 11th, 2007 Halliburton Co. surprised the energy world, members of Congress and the city of Houston today by announcing it will open a new corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates and relocate its chief executive officer there. |
| US: INTERVIEW-BP faulty in Alaska's biggest oil spill -gov't by Robert Campbell, Reuters March 6th, 2007 Oil major BP's failure to maintain pipelines properly at its giant Prudhoe Bay field was a major factor behind Alaska's worst-ever onshore crude spill last year, a senior federal official said. |
| US: BP/UC Deal Raises Concerns by Richard Brenneman, Berkeley Daily Planet March 2nd, 2007 The proposed agreement between one of the world’s largest oil companies, BP (formerly British Petroleum) and UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois has ignited a firestorm that promises to burn long and hot. |
| IRAQ: New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatisation by Emad Mekay, Inter Press News Service (IPS) February 27th, 2007 The U.S.-backed Iraqi cabinet approved a new oil law Monday that is set to give foreign companies the long-term contracts and safe legal framework they have been waiting for, but which has rattled labour unions and international campaigners who say oil production should remain in the hands of Iraqis. |
| FRANCE: Oil giant 'knew tanker was a risk before disaster' by John Lichfield, The Independent February 13th, 2007 The French oil company Total and 14 other defendants were accused yesterday of criminal responsibility for one of Europe's most calamitous oil spills, the wreck of the Erika. |
| NIGERIA: Oil Spill Displaces 10 Ijaw Communities
by Emma Arubi, Vanguard (Lagos) February 13th, 2007 CHEVRON'S Abiteye flow station oil spill of over 1,500 barrels of crude has rendered over 10 Ijaw communities and 500 hundred persons homeless in Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West local government area of Delta State. |
| UK: BP's BTC pipeline needs extra monitoring-US agency February 12th, 2007 Extra monitoring is needed on BP PLC's (BP) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, particularly on cracks and leakages in its coating, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, said in a report. |
| FRANCE: Total on trial over 1999 French oil disaster by James Mackenzie, Reuters February 12th, 2007 A trial into one of France's worst environmental disasters opens on Monday with oil giant Total facing charges over toxic fuel spills that washed ashore following the sinking of the tanker Erika in 1999. |
| INDIA: Farmers irked over land acquisition for Reliance's power plant in Ghaziabad by Shailesh Kumar, Down to Earth February 9th, 2007 Farmers continue to protest against Reliance's power project in UP |
| US: New York Moves Toward Suit Over a 50-Year-Old Oil Spill by Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times February 8th, 2007 New York State moved to sue Exxon Mobil and four other companies on Thursday to force them to clean up a half-century-old spill of millions of gallons of oil lying under the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn and to repair environmental damage inflicted on nearby Newtown Creek. |
| US: Device Breaks Up in Pipeline, and Search Is On for Lost Piece
by Felicity Barringer, The New York Times February 3rd, 2007 A device designed to clean waxy buildup from the walls of the 800-mile Alaska pipeline broke apart inside the pipeline in December, raising the possibility that any remaining shards of machinery might damage sensitive valves, an executive of Alyeska, the company that runs the pipeline, confirmed Thursday. |
| UK: Campaigners urge Shell to put profits into clean-up by Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK) January 31st, 2007 Record annual profits to be announced by Shell tomorrow should be used towards paying off a bill estimated at more than $20bn (Ł10bn) for the damage caused by its oil activities to local communities and the wider environment, according to an alliance of human rights and green groups including Friends of the Earth (FoE). |
| US: Green like money: Activists counter PG&E's greenwashing by Amanda Witherell, SF Bay Guardian January 31st, 2007 During a so-called green fair at the LGBT center in San Francisco, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG & E) unveiled a $170,000 gift of solar panels for the roof of the building. But activists complain that this recent move is a greenwashing tactic, to make this corporation, which owns a mere 0 percent solar and 2 percent wind, appear green when it is in fact not. |
| CAMEROON: Oil leak shows weaknesses in World Bank pipeline, NGOs warn IRIN News January 26th, 2007 Fishermen in the southern coastal town of Kribi are warily casting their nets after a leak in the massive Chad-Cameroon pipeline last week. |
| BRAZIL: Enslaved workers make charcoal used to make basic steel ingredient by Michael Smith and David Voreacos, Seattle Times January 21st, 2007 Enslaved workers make charcoal used to make basic steel ingredient |
| UK: Chief's Departure Ignites Criticism of BP's Structure and Environmental Policies by Heather Timmons, New York Times January 16th, 2007 Poor management and cost-cutting created a dangerous work environment at oil giant BP, according to a report released today based on hundreds of interviews with employees. |
| UK: Iraq poised to end drought for thirsting oil giants by Danny Fortson, The Independent (UK) January 7th, 2007 For more than three decades, foreign oil companies wanting into Iraq have been like children pressed against the sweet shop window - desperately seeking to feast on the goodies but having no way of getting through the door. That could soon change. |
| CHAD: World Bank OK With Blood For Oil by Daphne Wysham, TomPaine January 5th, 2007 |
| BELIZE: I-A Commission says GOB must protect indigenous people of Toledo The Reporter (BELIZE) January 5th, 2007 By permitting oil exploration on indigenous lands in the Toledo District the Government of Belize is violating treaty obligations and also a 2004 ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. |
| US: Exxon Mobil's biggest oil spill is in Brooklyn, not Alaska by Matthew Leising, Bloomberg January 4th, 2007 The biggest oil spill Exxon Mobil has to answer for is not the cargo that gushed from the Exxon Valdez tanker into Alaska's Prince William Sound. It is the fuel that soaked into the ground beneath a working class section of Brooklyn, New York. |
| US: ExxonMobil Accused of Disinformation on Warming by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service January 3rd, 2007 Like the tobacco industry that for decades denied a link between smoking and lung cancer, ExxonMobil has waged a "sophisticated and successful disinformation campaign" to mislead the public about global warming, according to a major new report by the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). |
| INDIA: Oil Industry Blamed for Polluting India's Assam Reuters December 29th, 2006 Oil companies in India's northeastern state of Assam are responsible for polluting rivers and destroying rainforests and have been told to clean up their act or face closure, authorities said on Thursday. |
| US: Court halves Exxon spill damages BBC News Online December 22nd, 2006 A US court has almost halved the damages oil giant Exxon Mobil must pay for a 1989 oil spill off Alaska. |
| EU: Exxon spends millions to cast doubt on warming by Andrew Buncombe and Stephen Castle, The Independent (UK) December 7th, 2006 The world's largest energy company is still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund European organisations that seek to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming and undermine support for legislation to curb emission of greenhouse gases. |
| PERU: Half the Peruvian Amazon Leased for Petroleum Development
Envinroment News Service December 4th, 2006 Conservation groups based in Washington warned today that the Peruvian government is signing so many contracts with multinational oil companies that half the rainforest of the Peruvian Amazon is now covered with oil leases. |
| US: Inuit sue US government over BP land usage by David Litterick, The Daily Telegraph (UK) November 20th, 2006 Fresh from settling a lawsuit over last year's fatal explosion at its Texas City oil refinery, BP looks set to become embroiled in a legal battle in Alaska over royalties paid on oil production in Prudhoe Bay. |
| PERU: Achuar win oil victory in Peru by Lisa Garrigues , Indian Country Today November 6th, 2006 On Oct. 24, after a 14-day occupation, representatives of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes Rio (FECONACO), which includes the Quichua and Urarinas people, reached an agreement with PlusPetrol and the Peruvian government. The agreement gave them 98 percent of their demands. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: Oil, Cash and Corruption by Ron Stodghill, The New York Times November 5th, 2006 In February, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan is scheduled to go to trial in the largest foreign bribery case brought against an American citizen. It involves a labyrinthine trail of international financial transfers, suspected money laundering and a dizzying array of domestic and overseas shell corporations. The criminal case names Mr. Nazarbayev as an unindicted co-conspirator. |
| US: BP Knew of Refinery Lapses Before Blast, U.S. Says (Update3) by Stephen Voss and Amy Strahan, Bloomberg October 30th, 2006 BP Plc's global management team knew of safety concerns at the company's Texas City, Texas, oil refinery before a deadly explosion last year, U.S. safety investigators said. |
| NIGERIA: Niger Delta bears brunt after 50 years of oil spills by Jonathan Brown, The Independent (UK) October 26th, 2006 Up to 1.5 million tons of oil, 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster, has been spilt in the ecologically precious Niger Delta over the past 50 years, it was revealed yesterday. |
| NIGERIA: Attack on Nigeria oil facilities BBC News October 25th, 2006 A group of protesters have invaded three Shell oil stations in the Niger Delta, forcing the facilities to be shut down, the company said. |
| US: SKILLING GETS 24 YEARS IN PRISON FOR ENRON FRAUD by Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle October 23rd, 2006 Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was sentenced today to 24 years in prison for his role in the energy company's 2001 collapse in what has become one of the nation's biggest corporate scandals. |
| US: U.S. coal plant boom poses big environmental, economic questions Associated Press October 15th, 2006 A building boom that would add scores of new coal-fired power plants to the nation's power grid is creating a new dilemma for politicians, environmentalists and utility companies across the United States. |
| US: Watchdog Group Blasts Ford for Ethanol Loophole Environment News Service October 13th, 2006 The Ford Motor Company is misleading the public and the government about several of its vehicles that claim to operate on ethanol, according to letters sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by the watchdog group Public Citizen. |
| US: New York Sues Coal-Fired Power Plant Environment News Service October 13th, 2006 |
| US: Oil Companies Settle Fuel Violations for $1.5 Million Environment News Service October 6th, 2006 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a $1.5 million settlement with BP and Shell for alleged violations of the motor vehicle fuels provisions of the federal Clean Air Act. |
| US: New Jersey Ratepayers Stop Big Utility Merger Environment News Service September 18th, 2006 After two years of public hearings, litigation, testimony and negotiations and more than 11,500 letters, phone calls and emails to state decision makers, New Jersey consumers avoided higher electricity rates when Exelon walked away from its takeover bid to buy-out Public Service Enterprise Group, PSEG, a publicly traded energy and energy services company headquartered in New Jersey. |
| US: U.S. Agencies Open Another Investigation Into Energy Trading at BP by Jad Mouawad, New York Times August 30th, 2006 BP, the giant oil company, acknowledged yesterday that federal investigators were looking into possible trading irregularities in oil and gasoline markets. |
| US: Seattle Firm Warned BP About Pipeline Associated Press August 27th, 2006 An engineering firm raised a red flag more than four years ago about BP's monitoring of its Alaska oil pipelines, documents show. |
| CHAD: Chad president orders Chevron, Petronas to leave by Betel Miarom, Reuters August 26th, 2006 Chad ordered Chevron and Petronas on Saturday to leave the country within 24 hours for failing to honour tax obligations, in a move apparently motivated by a desire to earn more from its oil. |
| US: Industry starts to back rules on greenhouse gas by Zachary Coile, San Francisco Chronicle August 24th, 2006 For years, most industry groups have fought any effort to limit carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming, warning of dire consequences for the U.S. economy. But with growing public anxiety about climate change, major corporations are increasingly preparing for -- and, in some cases, lobbying for -- Congress to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases. |
| PERU: Fresh Evidence of Construction Problems in Camisea Pipeline by Ángel Páez, Inter Press Service (IPS) August 24th, 2006 Techint, the Argentine company that built the Camisea pipeline which carries natural gas from Peru's Amazon jungle region to a port on the country's Pacific coast, used unqualified welders, in a clear violation of international norms, according to a new report by E-Tech, a California-based non-profit engineering and environmental consultancy firm. |
| US: Alaska's Air Sullied by Oil Production by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle August 24th, 2006 North Slope operations -- like oil production facilities everywhere -- release into the air a steady stream of pollutants and greenhouse gases, spewed by vehicles, power generators and the drilling process itself. Estimates vary, but the North Slope oil fields probably produce more smog-forming nitrogen oxides than Washington, D.C., and more carbon dioxide than San Francisco. |
| KAZAKSTAN: Environmental Charges Unlikely to Derail Kazakstan's Chevron Contract Environment News Service August 23rd, 2006 Kazakstan’s largest oil concessionaire, Tengiz Chevroil, has been threatened with having its license withdrawn because of accusations it breached environmental legislation. Analysts say that in reality, the Kazak government will never take such a step, since this would provoke a major crisis in relations with the United States. The largest shareholder in Tengiz Chevroil is American oil giant Chevron. |
| KATRINA: Entergy customers won't be getting relief by Pam Radtke Russell, New Orleans Times-Picayune August 23rd, 2006 Entergy New Orleans customers are paying nearly a third more for their power bills than they were last year, and a further proposed rate increase could mean bills will be 50 percent higher than before Hurricane Katrina. |
| PERU: Indigenous Community to Take Oil Company to Court by Milagros Salazar, Inter Press Service August 17th, 2006 Arankartuktaram! This Achuar cry sums up what indigenous communities in the heart of Peru's Amazon jungle region are demanding from the State and multinational oil companies -- a little respect. |
| CANADA: Information Cleansing, Canadian Style by Bill Berkowitz, Inter Press Service August 16th, 2006 If you're a teacher, student, journalist or just a plain concerned citizen interested in finding well-researched documentation about climate change, you can no longer depend on the Canadian government to supply that information. |
| INDONESIA: Java sinks deeper into toxic crisis by Mark Forbes, The Age (AUS) August 12th, 2006 TOXIC mud still spurting from a gas drilling well part-owned by Australian mining giant Santos is threatening to mire East Java in a full-scale disaster. |
| UK: BP given earlier warning of corrosion by Sheila McNulty , Financial Times August 8th, 2006 BP's board and London-based executives were informed of widespread corrosion at the UK oil giant's Alaska field two years before the company was forced to shut it this week, citing "unexpectedly severe corrosion". |
| IRELAND: Shell agrees to change route of gas pipeline in west Ireland by David McKittrick, The Independent (UK) August 5th, 2006 The multinational company Shell has promised to change the route of a planned gas pipeline in the west of Ireland following a protest campaign. |
| RUSSIA: Russia stops Shell project; state may be seeking stake by Lyubov Pronina, International Herald Tribune August 4th, 2006 Royal Dutch Shell was told Thursday by the Russian government to suspend construction of a pipeline on Sakhalin Island, threatening to delay a project whose costs doubled last year to $20 billion. |
| CHILE: Flood Deaths Inquiry Targets Hydropower Firm by Daniela Estrada, Inter Press News Service (IPS) August 3rd, 2006 The Chilean Congress is demanding that the government take measures to regulate the operations of hydroelectric dams, while it prepares to investigate whether or not the Spanish firm Endesa was to blame for the flooding seen several weeks ago in central and southern Chile, which left 25 dead. |
| PERU: Bank Signals More Funds for Problematic Pipeline by Emad Mekay, Inter Press News Service (IPS) July 31st, 2006 Critics of a controversial pipeline in the Amazon rainforest that has ruptured five times since its inception in 2004 are dismayed that the main public funder of the project is on the verge of giving more money for its second phase despite earlier promises to await the results of audits probing the pipeline's persistent leaks. |
| US: Power group promoting global warming skeptic by Timothy Gardner, Reuters July 27th, 2006 A Colorado electricity cooperative is urging other power groups to support global warming skeptics and has donated $100,000 to a climatologist who has labeled some of his colleagues "alarmists." |
| PERU: Leaky Gas Pipeline Finds Foes in Washington by Ángel Páez, Inter Press News Service July 17th, 2006 Phase II of Peru's controversial Camisea gas project has once again run up against opposition from the U.S. government and Senate, which may vote against approving additional Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funding. |
| UK: Anger at plan to dump tons of waste ash in lake by Michael McCarthy, The Independent (UK) July 10th, 2006 The German utility giant RWE, already under fire for the failure of its subsidiary company Thames Water to stem its unprecedented leak rate, is at the centre of another row over its environmental performance. |
| AUSTRALIA: Santos gets caught in toxic Indonesian mudflow The Age (AUSTRALIA) July 8th, 2006 A TOXIC mudflow in Indonesia, emanating from a gas project minority-owned by Australian-based Santos, is threatening to become an environmental, public health and public relations disaster. |
| US: Lay's Death Could Set Skilling Free by Barrie McKenna, The Globe and Mail (Canada) July 7th, 2006 Kenneth Lay's sudden death could prove to be an unexpected legal bequest to Jeffrey Skilling, his co-defendant in the landmark Enron Corp. fraud case. |
| SINGAPORE: Shell says biofuels from food crops "morally inappropriate" Reuters July 6th, 2006 Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive said on Thursday. |
| US: Lay's Death Complicates Efforts to Seize Assets by Simon Romero, The New York Times July 6th, 2006 In yet another bizarre twist to the Enron saga, the sudden death of Kenneth L. Lay on Wednesday may have spared his survivors financial ruin. Mr. Lay's death effectively voids the guilty verdict against him, temporarily thwarting the federal government's efforts to seize his remaining real estate and financial assets, legal experts say. |
| UK: Documents reveal hidden fears over Britain's nuclear plants by John Vidal and Ian Sample, Guardian Unlimited July 5th, 2006 Government nuclear inspectors have raised serious questions over the safety of Britain's ageing atomic power stations, some of which have developed major cracks in their reactor cores, documents reveal today. |
| US: Jackson Leads Anti-BP March Near Refinery The Associated Press July 5th, 2006 The Rev. Jesse Jackson brought his protest of BP PLC to the site of one of the state's worst refinery accidents Tuesday to speak against what he calls price gouging, discriminatory hiring practices and unsafe working conditions at the company. |
| US: BP Named in Inquiry on Propane Pricing by Jad Mouawad, The New York Times June 29th, 2006 Federal regulators charged yesterday that BP manipulated the price of propane two years ago by cornering the market through its dominant position, pushing up heating costs for millions of households at the peak of winter demand. |
| US: BP Unit Accused of Manipulating Propane Prices Reuters June 28th, 2006 The U.S. futures industry regulator said Wednesday that a U.S. unit of BP Plc. tried to manipulate U.S. propane prices by cornering the market in February 2004. |
| CHILE: Hydropower Plans Paddle On Against the Current
by Daniela Estrada , Inter Press News Service June 27th, 2006 The Chilean government has granted Endesa, a Spanish corporation, permission to carry out exploratory studies in the south of the country for the purpose of building four hydroelectric plants, in a move opposed by environmentalists, who are planning several demonstrations. |
| US: Jesse Jackson Calls for Boycott of BP by Stephen Foley, The Independent (UK) June 25th, 2006 The Reverend Jesse Jackson, the veteran civil rights leader, has called on African Americans to boycott BP over its record on equality. |
| US: Ehrlich Vetoes BGE Rate Deferral Bill by Andrew A. Green, The Baltimore Sun June 22nd, 2006 Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced today that he has vetoed the BGE rate deferral plan the legislature passed last week. |
| US: Dynegy Re-Sentencing Could Give Insight The Associated Press June 21st, 2006 The new sentence a federal judge imposes on a former Dynegy Inc. executive could provide some insight into how he'll approach the October sentencings of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling. |
| US: Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Refinery Emission Standards by Janet Wilson, The Los Angeles Times June 21st, 2006 A coalition of national and community environmental groups has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to overturn a new rule that allegedly allows refineries and other industrial plants to emit higher levels of noxious chemicals when starting up, shutting down and experiencing equipment malfunctions, without informing area residents. |
| INDIA: Private Hydel Project on Naramda River Halted by Bharat Dogra , Inter Press News Service June 20th, 2006 Once again, the government has been compelled to suspend work on the Maheshwar dam over the Narmada River in central India. |
| UK: Scottish Power Pays Former Executives 'Obscene' ÂŁ11m by Ashley Seager, The Guardian (UK) June 19th, 2006 Four executives of energy company Scottish Power cost the company ÂŁ11m in severance pay when they left their jobs over the past year, the group's annual report revealed yesterday. The payouts were immediately condemned as "obscene" by the Scottish National party's energy spokesman, Richard Lochhead. |
| UK: Shell 'Ignored Accident Warning' BBC News June 14th, 2006 Oil giant Shell has been accused of operating platforms in the North Sea at dangerously high risk levels. |
| US: US politician seeks answers on BP delay by Sheila McNulty, Financial Times June 14th, 2006 A US congressman on Tuesday demanded that US officials explain their decision to waive a deadline for BP to perform high-tech maintenance and corrosion checks on Alaska pipelines, following a 270,000-gallon spill of crude oil from a corroded pipeline. |
| CANADA: Canada Conservative Gets Aggressive With Big Oil by Ian Austen, The New York Times June 14th, 2006 Danny Williams may be a multimillionaire and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, but these days he is being compared to a self-proclaimed revolutionary, the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. |
| US: 2 Utilities to Pay Enron $50 Million in Settlement by David Cay Johnston, The New York Times June 14th, 2006 Two small utilities are set to pay more than $50 million to Enron for electricity that they agreed to buy but that Enron will never deliver, under terms of a settlement that raises larger issues. |
| BANGLADESH: Gas explosion: Compensation from Niko, Unocal demanded The New Nation June 13th, 2006 The National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas-Mineral Resources and Port yesterday demanded of the government to realise compensations from Niko and Unocal, recently merged with Chevron, for the disasters at Magurchhara and Tengratila gas fields. |
| US: PUSH Seeks Boycott of Oil Giant BP by Liam Ford, Chicago Tribune June 13th, 2006 Leaders attending the annual Rainbow PUSH Coalition conference on Monday called for a boycott of oil giant BP PLC, a conference sponsor, and for a renewed focus on increasing minority representation on national television news channels, including CNN. |
| BARBADOS: Farmers want their money Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) June 12th, 2006 Over two dozen farmers at Gibbons Boggs and Chancery Lane Christ Church, staged protest action, this morning demanding a settlement in their case against multi-national giant, Shell. |
| UK: British PLCs risk human rights litigation in US, lawyers warn by Michael Herman, The Times Online June 12th, 2006 British companies with global operations face a growing threat of being sued in the US over their dealings with foreign governments accused of human rights violations, a leading lawyer has warned. |
| CHINA: Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow by Keith Bradsher and David Barboza, The New York Times June 11th, 2006 |
| US: BP's Browne may face Texas deaths probe by Tim Webb and Clayton Hirst, The Independent (UK) June 11th, 2006 Lord Browne, the chief executive of BP, is facing a possible grilling by the US federal safety watchdog over last year's explosion at the oil giant's Texas refinery, which killed 15 people. |
| US: Release ordered for 2 executives
by John C. Roper, The Houston Chronicle June 9th, 2006 Two Merrill Lynch executives convicted for their roles in a Nigerian barge deal that inflated Enron's profits have been ordered released from prison pending their appeal. |
| US: Halliburton sees earnings doubling in coming years Stuff New Zealand June 9th, 2006 Oil field services company Halliburton Co. expects net income and earnings per share to double over the next three to five years, Chief Financial Officer Cris Gaut said today. |
| US: BP under criminal investigation for Alaska spill by Mark Tran, The Guardian June 8th, 2006 The oil giant BP is under criminal investigation in the US for a big oil spill in Alaska in March that has raised fresh questions about the company's safety record. |
| CANADA: Air Pollution Goes Global by Stephen Leahy , Inter Press News Service (IPS) June 2nd, 2006 Last month, the province of Ontario joined the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, along with two environmental groups, in a legal action against seven coal-fired electricity plants run by Duke Energy Corp. |
| AUSTRALIA: Centennial Coal’s community consultation has a price by Ross Kendall and Michael Walsh, Ethical Investor June 1st, 2006 Centennial Coal is attempting buy ‘people’s opinions and right to free speech’ with its property purchase contracts for a new mine, according Greenpeace and a local residents group. |
| US: Split verdict in Enron broadband retrial by Kristen Hayes, Associated Press June 1st, 2006 Of two former Enron Corp. broadband executives to be retried on fraud and conspiracy charges in the wake of a hung jury last year, one faces prison and the other is free. |
| VENEZUELA: For Venezuela, a Treasure in Oil Sludge by Juan Forero, The New York Times June 1st, 2006 This great, largely untapped treasure is pitting a leftist government aiming to use oil revenue for social programs against multinational corporations like Chevron, which were invited here a decade ago to develop the Orinoco Belt, a 54-square-mile area some 120 miles south of here. |
| US: U.S. to Seek Extra $92 Million From Exxon for Valdez Spill by John Holusha, The New York Times June 1st, 2006 The federal government and Alaska said today that they would seek to get the Exxon Mobil Corporation to pay an additional $92 million to clean up the lingering effects of the 1989 oil spill caused by the crash of the tanker Exxon Valdez. |
| US: Exxon Mobil meeting in Dallas draws protesters Associated Press May 31st, 2006 Shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corp. gathered today for the oil giant's annual meeting while oil drum-wearing demonstrators protested that the company is helping retard action against global warming. |
| CANADA: Canada Pays Environmentally for U.S. Oil Thirst by Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service May 31st, 2006 Huge mines here turning tarry sand into cash for Canada and oil for the United States are taking an unexpectedly high environmental toll, sucking water from rivers and natural gas from wells and producing large amounts of gases linked to global warming. |
| BOLIVIA: Petrobras accused of supply 'sabotage' AP May 30th, 2006 The president of Bolivia's state energy company has accused the Brazilian energy company Petrobras of "sabotage," blaming it for problems in supplying diesel fuel in Bolivia. |
| WORLD: The Scariest Predators in the Corporate Jungle by Thalif Deen, Inter-Press Service May 23rd, 2006 The world's oil, gas and mining industries account for nearly two-thirds of all violations of human rights, environmental laws and international labour standards, according to a soon-to-be-released United Nations study. |
| NIGERIA: Ijaw Win $1.5 Billion Suit Against Shell by George Onah, Vanguard (Lagos) May 23rd, 2006 The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to pay $1.5 billion about N210 billion into the coffers of Central Bank of Nigeria, in favour of the Ijaw Aborigenes of Bayelsa State, between last Friday and noon tomorrow. |
| PERU: Built to Spill by Chip Mitchell, The Texas Observer May 19th, 2006 If Hunt Oil Co. has proven anything in Peru, it’s that the morality of trying to pump 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas through pristine rain forests is entirely a matter of perspective. |
| US: Exxon Valdez Oil Persists in Prince William Sound Envidonmental News Service May 18th, 2006 Seventeen years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, new evidence suggests that remnants of the worst oil spill in U.S. history farther into tidal waters than previously thought, increasing the probability that the oil is causing unanticipated long-term harm to wildlife. |
| ECUADOR: Bush administration breaks off free trade talks with Ecuador by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press May 16th, 2006 The Bush administration said Tuesday it had broken off negotiations on a free trade agreement with Ecuador following the South American government's decision to annul an operating contract with Occidental Petroleum Corp. |
| NETHERLANDS: Dutch Bank Urged to Pass on Russian Oil Project by Emad Mekay, Inter Press News Service May 12th, 2006 The giant Dutch bank ABN Amro, one of the world's largest financial institutions, is facing charges of "environmental hypocrisy" from green groups concerned over the bank's possible financing for a controversial Russian oil extraction project. |
| BOLIVIA: Oil Companies Not Entitled to Payment, Bolivian Says by Carter Dougherty, The New York Times May 12th, 2006 The leader of Bolivia on Thursday ruled out compensating oil companies for nationalized oil and gas fields as he came under questioning from European officials at the start of a high-level meeting on energy and trade. |
| CANADA: Turning sludge into black gold by Russell Gold, The Wall Street Journal May 8th, 2006 Canada's oil sands may quench the world's thirst for energy, but for a steep price. |
| BOLIVIA: Neighbours Recognise Bolivia's 'Sovereign' Right to Nationalise Gas by Marcela Valente, Inter Press News Service May 4th, 2006 The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela confirmed their interest in moving together towards regional energy integration, in a summit held Thursday in the northeastern Argentine province of Misiones to discuss the impact of the Bolivian government's decision to reassert state control over the country's energy resources. |
| BOLIVIA: Bolivia threatens to seize energy assets by Juan Forero, International Herald Tribune May 4th, 2006 Bolivian authorities plan to scour the financial records of foreign energy companies and have threatened explicitly for the first time to seize company assets if new contracts giving the state greater control can not be negotiated. |
| BOLIVIA: Bolivia Nationalizes Natural Gas Industry The Associated Press May 1st, 2006 President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to immediately occupy Bolivia's natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they sign new contracts within six months giving Bolivia majority control over the entire chain of production. |
| AFRICA: Anger rises in oil-rich Chad as funds don't aid the poor by Raymond Thibodeaux, The Boston Globe April 30th, 2006 Three years after Chad began exporting its oil with assistance from the World Bank, few people outside the capital have access to electricity, running water, paved roads, and health clinics. Public schools are nonexistent. Life expectancy is 46 years for men, and only slightly longer for women. |
| NIGERIA: New Pipeline a "Recipe for Disaster", Locals Say by Emad Mekay , Inter Press News Service (IPS) April 27th, 2006 Local communities in Nigeria are taking the World Bank before an internal auditor over claims that the lender neglected its duties and anti-poverty mission when it funded a controversial gas pipeline in the region, whose construction they say will harm the environment and area residents. |
| RUSSIA: Shell Urged to Abandon $20bn Siberian Pipeline That Could Drive Whale Species to Extinction
by Jonathan Brown, Independent/UK April 25th, 2006 With the melting of the ice after eight months, Shell is set to enter a crucial offshore construction phase in the development of its $20bn [Ł11.2bn] oil and gas programme. Wildlife campaigners say the price of the pipeline could be the extinction of a species of whale. |
| UK: UK Scientists Attack Oil Firms' Role in Huge Arctic Project by David Adam, The Guardian (UK) April 18th, 2006 British scientists are at loggerheads with US colleagues over a controversial plan to work alongside oil companies to hunt for fossil fuel reserves in the Arctic. |
| CHAD: Chad eases threats on oil, Darfur refugees by Daniel Flynn, Swiss Info April 17th, 2006 Chad on Monday softened threats to stop sheltering Sudanese refugees and halt oil production following rebel attacks as the United States offered to broker a solution to a dispute with the World Bank. |
| US: Enron Prosecutor Questions Skilling's Story by Vikas Bajaj and Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times April 17th, 2006 A prosecutor tried to poke holes in the testimony of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, today by boring in on stock sales he made in the months after he left the company and before the energy company declared bankruptcy. |
| US: The Enron Standard by Lee Drutman, tompaine.com April 13th, 2006 In a Houston courtroom this week, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling took the witness stand to plead his innocence, telling jurors that “My life is on the line.” |
| NIGERIA: Government Investigation Indicts Shell over Toxic Waste by Yemie Adeoye, Vanguard (Lagos) April 4th, 2006 THE Ministerial investigation committee into alleged dumping of toxic waste by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) at Igbeku and Ejekimoni communities of Sapele local government area of Delta State has come up with recommendations for the company to remove and treat in situ the "alleged buried waste" to acceptable statutory levels. |
| US: Exxon Dethrones Wal-Mart on Fortune 500 List by J.W. Elphinstone, Associated Press April 3rd, 2006 Skyrocketing energy prices propelled ExxonMobil (XOM) to the top of the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and consigned Wal-Mart (WMT) to the No. 2 spot on the magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest publicly traded companies. |
| VENEZUELA: Gov't Takes Back Oil Fields BBC News April 3rd, 2006 Venezuela has taken control of two oil fields operated by French firm Total and Italy's Eni. |
| EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Equatorial Guinea hosts ethics workshop by DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press March 27th, 2006 Is a traditional tribal leader a government official, and could giving money to him be considered bribery? These questions, which oil and gas company executives grappled with recently during a workshop in Equatorial Guinea, are more than an academic exercise. |
| THAILAND: Court Ruling Hits Privatisation Plans by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service March 27th, 2006 On Thursday, the supreme administrative court ruled that the planned sale of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), to raise an estimated 892.5 million US dollars, was illegal. |
| US: Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times March 27th, 2006 Last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful. |
| US: Did a Group Financed by Exxon
Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace? by Steve Stecklow, The Wall Street Journal March 21st, 2006 Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes. What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests. |
| US: Congress Challenges Oil Executives on Profits by Jad Mouawad, The New York Times March 14th, 2006 The oil executives were sworn in. This formality created the very kind of picture — six of the most powerful American executives lined up with their right hands up in the air — that they had sought to avoid. Otherwise, much of the theatrics were the same, and so were the arguments from the oil executives. |
| US: Burst oil pipeline causes 'catastrophe' in Alaska by Andrew Gumbel, The Independent (UK) March 14th, 2006 |
| US: Exxon still owes for Valdez spill by Mike Lewis, Seattle Post-Intelligencer March 13th, 2006 Now, with Exxon reaping even more -- $36 billion last year, a world record for a single company -- and another spill anniversary looming without a payment, the 32,000 fishermen, food processors and Alaska natives who remain plaintiffs in the case are seething. |
| US: Fastow grilled about 'smoking gun' document by Greg Farrell, USA TODAY March 9th, 2006 A defense lawyer in the trial of former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling spent Thursday morning trying to undermine the testimony of the government's star witness and questioning the authenticity of a "smoking gun" document. |
| US: Fastow: "I was being a hero for Enron." by John C. Roper, Houston Chronicle March 7th, 2006 Andrew Fastow considered himself "a hero for Enron'' for hiding losses and bolstering earnings for the company through partnership deals he created. |
| WORLD: Cleaning Up Its Reputation
by Rebecca Bream, Financial Times March 6th, 2006 The mining industry has a worldwide image problem. In developing and developed countries alike, the public tends to regard mines as dirty, dangerous and disruptive — and those who stand to profit from them as greedy despoilers. |
| PERU: Substandard Peruvian Gas Pipeline Blamed for Spills Environmental News Service March 2nd, 2006 A pipeline crossing the Peruvian Amazon has spilled natural gas liquids four times since it opened 15 months ago because it was shoddily built by unqualified welders using corroded pipes left from other jobs, according to a new technical report by the nonprofit environmental consultancy E-Tech International based in San Diego. |
| US: Crude spill shuts down Slope plant by Wesley Loy, The Anchorage Daily News March 1st, 2006 Crude oil leaking from a major North Slope pipeline might have oozed over 3 to 5 acres of frozen, snow-clad tundra, prompting a major cleanup effort Thursday, an oil company spokesman said. |
| PERU: Bank Rejects Rapid Review of Controversial Pipeline by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service News Agency March 1st, 2006 The main public investor in a controversial gas pipeline in Peru's Amazon rainforest that has ruptured four times already appears adamant not to bow to pressure from green groups demanding a full investigation after a study asserted that the pipeline is shoddily built and likely to break again. |
| NIGERIA: Nigerian Militants Free Six of Nine Foreign Hostages Bloomberg March 1st, 2006 U.S. hostage Macon Hawkins and five other foreign oil workers kidnapped last month by Nigerian militants were freed today. |
| NIGERIA: Shell told to pay $1.5 bln damages Reuters February 24th, 2006 A Nigerian court said on Friday Royal Dutch Shell should pay $1.5 billion (861 billion pounds) in damages for pollution in oil-producing Bayelsa state, the latest instalment in a long-running case. |
| US: Enron Secretary Defends Her Criticism of Executives by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times February 23rd, 2006 For the first time in the four-week trial of two former Enron executives, the actions of the company's directors in a critical month in 2001 came under scrutiny during a cross-examination. |
| UK: British Court Backs Extradition of Three in Enron-Related Case
Associated Press February 22nd, 2006 Three British bankers may be extradited to the United States to face Enron-related fraud charges, the High Court ruled on Tuesday in a ruling that was the first test case of laws introduced to speed the transfer of suspected terrorists. |
| NIGERIA: Nigerian oil industry helpless as militants declare war on Obasanjo by Dino Mahtani, Financial Times February 21st, 2006 Villagers in Okerenkoko, once a peaceful settlement along a creek in Nigeria's oil-producing delta region, have feared for weeks what a big military operation against a guerrilla insurgency could bring. |
| BOLIVIA: Bolivia Indicts Shady Oil Transnat Prensa Latina February 20th, 2006 Bolivia´s President Evo Morales is analyzing Monday with specialized officials the current situation of Andina Co., controlled by Spanish transnational Repsol which is accused of illegally trafficking petroleum. |
| US: Congressman Starts Inquiry of Windfall to Oil Companies by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times February 16th, 2006 A House Republican began a broad investigation on Wednesday of an Interior Department program that is expected to give billions of dollars in benefits over the next five years to companies that pump oil and gas on federal territory. |
| US: Skilling's Lawyer Portrays an Accuser as Out of Touch
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times February 16th, 2006 A lawyer for Jeffrey K. Skilling, a former Enron chief executive, tried Wednesday to portray the head of the company's broadband unit as an out-of-touch manager who was criticized for his free-spending ways and did not even know how many employees were working under him. |
| US: Maryland Power Plants Linked to 700 Premature Deaths Per Year Environmental News Service February 15th, 2006 Nationwide, 700 premature deaths, 30,000 asthma attacks and 400 pediatric emergency room visits each year are linked to current pollution from six Maryland power plants, according to a new study released today by the Maryland Nurses Association (MNA). |
| US: U.S. ROYALTY PLAN TO GIVE WINDFALL TO OIL COMPANIES by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times February 14th, 2006 The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years. |
| NIGERIA: Nigeria braces for outbreaks of unrest by Dino Mahtani, The Financial Times February 7th, 2006 The commander of Nigeria’s military operation in the oil-rich Niger delta has warned of more unrest there as Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation heads towards national elections next year. |
| AFRICA: Mauritania and firm row over oil BBC News February 6th, 2006 Mauritanian leaders and Australia's Woodside Petroleum have still to reach agreement over contracts, a fortnight before an oil production deal starts. |
| WORLD: Shell Makes Record $23bn Profit by Michael Harrison, The Independent February 3rd, 2006 The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell defended itself yesterday against charges of profiteering at the expense of motorists and householders after announcing the biggest profit in UK corporate history. |
| US: 10 Enron Players: Where They Landed After the Fall by staff, The New York Times January 29th, 2006 KENNETH L. LAY and his second in command, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were the public faces of Enron, painting a rosy picture of strong profits and healthy businesses. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees. |
| VENEZUELA: Indigenous Demonstrators Protest Coal Mining by Humberto Márquez, Interpress News Service January 27th, 2006 Indigenous protesters from northwestern Venezuela marched Friday through the streets of Caracas, which is hosting the sixth World Social Forum (WSF), to protest plans for mining coal on their land. |
| US: Big Test Looms for Prosecutors at Enron Trial by Kurt Eichenwald, The New York Times January 26th, 2006 "For the government, if they lose the Enron case, it will be seen as a symbolic failure of their rather significant campaign against white-collar crime," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It will be seen as some evidence that some cases are too complicated to be brought into the criminal justice process." |
| US: Hard Times Haunt Enron's Ex-Workers by Simon Romero, The New York Times January 25th, 2006 For Angelique Chappell, a former administrative assistant at Enron, it all now seems like a mirage. |
| US: As Profit Soars, Companies Pay US Less for Gas Rights by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times January 23rd, 2006 At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters. |
| BOLIVIA: Bolivia’s Morales rejects US domination by Hal Weitzman, The Financial Times January 22nd, 2006 Evo Morales was sworn in on Sunday as Bolivia’s first indigenous president in a historic and emotional ceremony that set the tone for his new government, promising to move much the profits of Bolivia's natural resources to the people of Bolivia. |
| MALAYSIA: Dirty Dam Draws Dirty Smelters by Anil Netto, Inter Press Service January 19th, 2006 Transnational aluminium smelters, some teaming up with Malaysian partners, are beating a path to eastern Sarawak state with an eye to surplus power from the problem-ridden Bakun Dam. |
| US: Taking Enron to Task by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post January 18th, 2006 Sean M. Berkowitz and a small group of government lawyers will be in the spotlight in the Jan. 30 trial of Enron's former leaders. The case is the capstone in the cleanup after an era of business misconduct that left investors billions of dollars poorer. The outcome could shape the public's -- and history's -- judgment of how effective it was. |
| NIGERIA: Shell may pull out of Niger Delta after 17 die in boat raid by Daniel Howden, The Independent (UK) January 17th, 2006 The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was considering pulling out of the volatile Niger Delta region yesterday after heavily armed militants stormed one of its facilities and killed at least 17 people. |
| US: Judge Sends Ex-Westar Energy CEO to Prison Associated Press January 17th, 2006 David Wittig, the former chief executive of Westar Energy Inc., was sent to federal prison Tuesday after a judge ruled he had violated terms of his release pending an appeal of his bank fraud convictions. |
| ECUADOR: Selling the Amazon for a Handful of Beads by Kelly Hearn, AlterNet January 17th, 2006 In the midst of an Amazonian oil boom, classified documents reveal deep links between oil companies and Ecuador's military. |
| US: Class-action case sought over Katrina oil spill by Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters January 13th, 2006 Attorneys argued in federal court on Thursday over whether homeowners whose property fell victim to an oil spill from Hurricane Katrina can band together and sue Murphy Oil Corp in a class-action lawsuit. |
| US: Prosecutors Shift Focus on Enron by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times January 11th, 2006 Government lawyers who will try the case against Enron's former chief executives, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, have signaled that they intend to spend less time befuddling jurors with talk of Enron's accounting. |
| BOLIVIA: Spanish energy giant Repsol says it respects international law Agence France Presse January 10th, 2006 Spanish energy giant Repsol-YPF said that it respects international law, in reaction to accusations that the company claimed to own part of Bolivia's gas reserves. |
| US: Moving Mountains by Erik Reece, Orion Magazine January 9th, 2006 It is the people of Appalachia who pay the highest price for the rest of the country's cheap energy—through contaminated water, flooding, cracked foundations and wells, bronchial problems related to breathing coal dust, and roads that have been torn up and turned deadly by speeding coal trucks. |
| US: Call It the Deal of a Lifetime by Landon Thomas, Jr., The New York Times January 8th, 2006 It has been a wrenching professional and personal reversal for Michael Kopper, who three years ago became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges and cut a deal with the government. Mr. Kopper was also the first high-ranking Enron employee to publicly admit to lying and stealing - in his case, more than $16 million - from the company. |
| US: Two Linked to Dynegy Scheme Are Given Shorter Prison Terms Associated Press January 6th, 2006 The two people who helped a former Dynegy Inc. executive hatch a fraudulent accounting scheme that landed him two dozen years behind bars will serve dramatically shorter prison terms. |
| US: Shell Trader, Unit Are Fined Over Bogus Oil Trades by Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal January 5th, 2006 The Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined a top oil trader at Royal Dutch Shell PLC and one of the energy titan's trading subsidiaries a combined $300,000 for a series of bogus oil-futures trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange. |
| US: Four Years Later, Enron's Shadow Lingers as Change Comes Slowly by Stephen Labaton, The New York Times January 5th, 2006 Four years after the company's ignominious collapse, Enron's former top executives are about to head to a climactic criminal trial later this month, serving as a reminder that changes in the behavior of many American companies have been more muted than many once expected. |
| US: Enron Prosecutors, After Plea Bargain, Can Reduce Technical Jargon in Trial
by John R. Emshwiller, The Wall Street Journal January 4th, 2006 The plea bargain last week by former Enron Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey gives federal prosecutors the chance to present a shorter and less technical case against former company Chairman Kenneth Lay and former President Jeffrey Skilling. The pair's trial on conspiracy, fraud and other charges is scheduled to start in Houston on Jan. 30. |
| US: Re-Sentencing Set for Ex-Dynegy Executive Associated Press January 4th, 2006 A former executive at energy company Dynegy Inc. whose 24-year prison sentence for accounting fraud was thrown out by a federal appeals panel should serve no more than five years, his attorney said in court papers. |
| US: Shell Subsidiary Agrees to Settle Charges Associated Press January 4th, 2006 |
| US: U.S. says Skilling mislead the SEC CNN January 4th, 2006 Prosecutors intend to argue that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling attempted to deceive the Securities and Exchange Commission in a deposition he gave soon after the company's bankruptcy about his reason for selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock, according to a motion filed in a Houston federal court Tuesday. |
| NIGERIA: Blood Flows With Oil in Poor Villages by Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times January 1st, 2006 For months a pitched battle has been fought between communities that claim authority over this village and the right to control what lies beneath its watery ground: a potentially vast field of crude oil that has caught the attention of a major energy company. |
| AZERBAIJAN: Azerbaijan oil: a mixed blessing Christian Science Monitor December 30th, 2005 The corruption-prone country expects oil revenues to total $160 billion by 2025. |
| RUSSIA: In Russia, Pollution Is Good for Business by Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times December 28th, 2005 One of the paradoxes of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change is that companies in Russia and other Eastern European countries, which are among the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases, are poised to earn hundreds of millions of dollars through trading their rights to release carbon dioxide into the air. |
| US: Former Top Enron Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraud by Simon Romero and Vikas Bajas, The New York Times December 28th, 2005 The former chief accounting officer of Enron pleaded guilty today to a single felony charge of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, giving a significant lift to the government's case against the two leading figures in the scandal over Enron's collapse. |
| VENEZUELA: State Gives Exxon an Ultimatum by Greg Morsbach, BBC News December 20th, 2005 |
| US: Suit Filed Against BP, Exxon in Alaska by Matt Volz, Associated Press December 20th, 2005 An antitrust lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs. |
| ARGENTINA: The War for Gold in Catamarca by Darío Aranda, Página 12 Newspaper December 18th, 2005 Water that is undrinkable. Air that is better left unbreathed. A community impoverished, living above mountains of gold. These are some of the contradictions of Andalgalá, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in Catamarca, Argentina, 240 kilometres from the provincial capital, home for ten years now to the largest gold and copper mine in the country, and one of the largest in the world. |
| ENRON: Ken Lay's Very Public Appeal by Kate Murphy, BusinessWeek December 14th, 2005 Soon heading to trial, the former Enron CEO implores -- before a wealthy crowd -- company employees to "stand up" for him. |
| NIGERIA: Oil and Misery by Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times December 10th, 2005 |