PLATFORM investigates the role of RBS in financing oil and gas projects around the world – This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 4. February saw Britain’s private banks including Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC and Barclays post record profits. Revenues were boosted by the high oil price and the…
This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 3. As Carbon Web goes to press, Iraqi politicians are still haggling over the key roles in forming a new government. The outcome will be closely watched not only by Iraqis, but as a recent PLATFORM report reveals, by multinational oil companies, hoping to…
There is considerable debate, both within and outside the oil industry, on whether global oil production has peaked here an oil geologist argues that we should take the threat seriously – This report was first published in Platform's carbon web news letter, issue 3. Peak oil has become a hot topic. The term is used to…
Safety failures delay the opening of BP’s BTC pipeline by a year – This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 3. BP’s reputation faces a battering as completion of its flagship Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) has been delayed by more than a year. The pipeline will not come on stream before April, due to…
This interview was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 2. There are few independent and publicly critical voices emanating from Azerbaijan. With the current regime of President Ilham Aliyev – like that of his father Heydar before him – enforcing its hegemonic control through both brute force and a strong hold over…
10 years on from Saro-Wiwa the Niger Delta remains one of the world‘s most unstable oil provinces, despite US-UK ambitions. – This report was first published in Platform’s Carbon web newsletter, issue 2. Ten years ago on 10th November, 9 men were hanged in a squalid courtyard at Port Harcourt Prison, Delta State, Nigeria.…
Presentation at `Desire Lines` conference on Arts & Ecology, Dartington College, Totnes, Devon. Saturday 10th September 2005. James Marriott. THE END OF THE EMPIRE OF GOG & MAGOG (Slide showing on screen at start : Robin Territories at Dartington 1935 – 1945) First of may I say thank you to Alan (Bolden), Lara (Riley) and…
This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 1. Forty-two years since the official opening of the Shell Centre, Tuesday 28th June was perhaps the most significant day yet in the life of that prominent building on the South Bank. Those who photograph it from the London Eye will not notice…
This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, Issue 1. BP’s official inauguration of its BakuTbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in May contained in a nutshell the controversy of the last ten years – and a glimpse of what can be expected over the next forty. As BP’s PR machine was telling positive stories…
“the writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.” Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) The Next Gulf – London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria. Written By: Andy Rowell, James…