BG fined while villagers resist in Kazakhstan
Feb 28, 2010
The Western consortium developing the enormous Karachaganak natural gas field in Kazakhstan was fined $21 million yesterday for excessive dumping waste. British BG, Italian Eni and American Chevron, the companies developing the field on the the border with Russia, were convicted of environmental violations in 2008 by a regional court. Analysts and reporters believe that the penalty...
New PLATFORM report reveals RBS is UK bank most involved in financing loans to tar sands companies
Feb 27, 2010
Tar sands extraction in Canada is devastating Indigenous communities, wildlife and vast areas of boreal forests, as well as being many times more carbon-intensive to produce than ‘conventional’ oil. “We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked to the Tar...
Colombian police repression of BP workers
Feb 20, 2010
On 15 February the notorious ESMAD ‘anti-strike’ police attacked a community and workers’ picket line by the Tauramena BP plant in Casanare, Colombia. Three workers were hospitalised and several children affected heavily by tear gas. Workers at the BP plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil field in Casanare, Colombia have been protesting...
Disgust, Integrity, Solidarity
Feb 19, 2010
Nearly three months have passed since C Words closed and I’ve been re-reading the blog entries, my and others’ copious notes and records, the heaps of rich and mostly positive feedback we’ve collected on paper, in emails, interviews on video, audio, and anecdotally. This compensates for the tiny art-critical response: one interesting and thoughtful review...
Contracts Curse: Leaked Oil Deals Put Ugandans at Risk
Feb 18, 2010
Oil contracts signed secretly in Uganda and exposed by PLATFORM will allow major oil companies to flare gas with impunity in the country’s Lake Alberta region on the border with Congo. As the New York Times reports: “Production is going to start in 2010 with no environmental assessment having yet been carried out,” said Platform’s...
14 Welsh harbour pilots could disrupt 25% of petrol & diesel imports
Feb 18, 2010
According to the FT, industrial action by 14 harbour pilots at Milford Haven later this week could seriously disrupt supplies of oil and gas to the UK. The port includes Exxon’s RBS-financed South Hook LNG Terminal which imports gas from Qatar. The story highlights yet again the importance of projects like Workers Climate Action. Port strike risks...
Oil tilting the planet?
Feb 18, 2010
An academic paper presented at a conference in India this week proposes that rapid fossil fuel extraction could change the planet’s tilt and spin. Don’t know enough about the science, so it might not be credible at all. But I can already see the PR teams lobbying for equal fossil fuel expansion potential everywhere in...
Shale gas off Liverpool
Feb 16, 2010
Unconventional shale gas has been discovered in the waters off Liverpool by IGas. Shale gas is natural gas lodged within shale rock, until recently largely inaccessible. Financial viability has increased with the expansion of hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – the pumping of complex and polluting liquids into the rocks, to fracture them horizontally. This has led to major concerns...
Irish fisherman activist imprisoned for opposing Shell
Feb 13, 2010
For 11 years the people of County Mayo in Ireland have been resisting Shell’s efforts to develop a dangerous high pressure raw gas pipeline. Pat O’Donnell, a prominent local fisherman and anti-Shell campaigner defending his family and livelihood has been sentenced to 7 months in jail. Retired Maura Harrington was also convicted of charges including...
Shell Leaks Blast Company’s Record on Nigeria
Feb 12, 2010
Concerned employees could be joining global campaigners to demand changes from Shell; including an end to daily gas flaring and oil spills in the Niger Delta. Stories in the Financial Times and The Times today revealed that: Contact details for 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell have been sent to environmental and human...
Shell obstructs Nigerian efforts to end gas flaring
Feb 12, 2010
Nigerian investors attempting to end gas flaring in Nigeria have publicly accused Shell and other international oil companies of obstructing their plans. The Nigerian companies signed a Memo of Understanding with the Nigerian government to divert the gas to domestic power generation in December 2009. The international oil companies continue to flare gas causing a...
Mora County tells Shell to Frack Off
Feb 6, 2010
Local opposition is slowing Shell’s plans to drill for “tight gas” in Mora County in North-Western Arizona. Until recently, extracting “tight” or “shale gas” wasn’t economically viable, due to the smaller quantities dispersed across a wider rock deposit. However, new techniques known as “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” allow oil & gas corporations to access these...
