Platform has released a new briefing analysing Uganda’s draft “Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Bill” The report – entitled “The Ugandan Upstream oil law: A search in vain for accountability and democratic oversight”, highlights the lack of parliamentary oversight, transparency, or consultation or involvement of affected communities in the proposed oil law. At the same…
Platform made a submission on Libya to the Foreign Affairs Committee enquiry, “British foreign policy and the ‘Arab Spring’: the transition to democracy” on 30 November 2011. AS 15 Written evidence from PLATFORM SUMMARY 1. UK foreign policy on Libya focused excessively on improving relationships with the Gaddafi regime and promoting British business interests, at the expense…
The Ugandan government is insisting that British oil company Tullow Oil, France’s Total and Chinese group CNOOC drop the stabilisation clause from their oil contract of Lake Albert before approving the $10 billion oil project. The original contracts were leaked by PLATFORM in 2010. Meanwhile Ugandan opposition MPs are unhappy that Museveni’s government allowed disputes…
The crackdown on the Syrian uprising has intensified in the eastern oil region around Deir Az-Zour. According to the FT, The towns of Mayadin and Burhama were attacked on Wednesday, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group, with tanks and machine guns used during mass arrest campaigns. Another local resident said she had…
This briefing by Platform and Greenpeace examines George Osborne’s changes to North Sea tax, and how the oil industry might not have it as bad as they are making it out to be. It then considers ways in which the Chancellor may respond to the industry’s campaign against the changes.
Also available in Arabic and Italian. Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars. 'Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth' reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq’s reserves…
In May 2004, 39 civil society groups, from 15 countries, warned commercial banks of extensive violations of the Equator Principles by the Shell-led Sakhalin II project. This update from 2005 finds that events over the past ten months show a deteriorating situation, constituting further violations.
Platform’s report reveals that revenue distribution for Sakhalin II between the Russian government and Shell’s consortium (SEIC) is set at a grossly unfair level. The contract terms, defined in a 1994 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), place the Russian state at a significant disadvantage.
This project is part of Platform’s long-term commitment to support environmental justice struggles at the front lines of oil and gas drilling internationally. BP does not carry out fracking in the UK where it is headquartered, because “it would attract the wrong kind of attention”. But BP, Shell and a host of other companies are…