Bob Dudley, Chief Executive, who appears tired, pale and jowly, looks up from his notes and addresses a set of questions that have been put to the Board. This particular set from delegates at the Annual General Meeting of BP, are grouped together under the bracket of ‘concerned with climate change’. He peers out at…
Osborne is announcing his #Budget2016 on Weds, and there’s lots of pressure from the oil barons for more subsidies and tax cuts. Their income has been hit by the falling oil price, and in all those years of bonanza profits they never thought to save for this rainy day (even though it was predictable given the mostly cyclical…
We wake in a B&B in Kilnsea, the last village before the shingle bar of Spurn Head that juts out from Holderness in East Yorkshire. All night a South Easterly wind of Force 6, gusting to Force 7, has buffeted the farmhouse. From the windows we can see white horses on the River Humber and…
We are in the dim light and red velvet of the Circustheatre in Den Haag for the Shell AGM. Up on the podium are the assembled bishops of the company. Eight in the back row all non-executives. Five in the front row: the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Executive, the Chairman and two non-excutives. Behind…
As the London Stock Exchange opened at 09.00 on Tuesday, 16th December, BP’s shareprice was down to 365 pence. It was the bottom of a long slide from 448 pence on the 21st November and investors in the company looked concerned that BP was failing badly. Shares in BP have lost 25% of their value…
“No you can’t get through down there. They’ve got a full set of anti-terrorist police. Machine guns and all. They’ll jump out at you if you go beyond that fence. Mind you, it helps keep the crime down in the village”. The tall man with white hair straggling out from under his black hat and…
What’s missing from the oil debate around Scotland’s referendum? The dominant voices on both sides of the #indyref debate have focused on total reserves left on the UK Continental Shelf, and on the potential for an oil fund. But the debate has shied away from asking in whose interest oil should be governed, and whether…
Platform and the Guardian Data Blog have mapped Shell’s global security spending for 2008. The graphic is based on leaked internal financial data. You can find Platform’s full briefing on this issue here.
The Gannet Alpha spill in the North Sea is a stark reminder of the dangers of ageing rigs and oil company PR
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.