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Tectonic shifts – the energy crisis and the leap beyond – The Economic War, part 4
Blog post -
Apr 4, 2022
Shell declares it may go back into Cambo and the oilfield’s exploration license is extended by two years. The British government pushes for renewed drilling in the UK North Sea. There is public outcry at the Chancellor’s failure to defend households from the attack on living standards driven by price inflation. The Russian government announces...
How to Capture the Future and Store Capital – the plans for CCS in Liverpool Bay
Blog post -
Nov 5, 2021
You can see the future from Formby Beach. You don’t even need to climb up on one of steep sand dunes to catch a glimpse of it. It is out there yellow and white lights blinking in the grey dusk away to the North West. It has supplanted the red dots of the turbines on...
Iraq, BP and the British Museum – look upon these works and hang our heads in shame
Blog post -
Mar 14, 2019
I had read in advance the briefing that Culture Unstained had put out to accompany the planned action. The protest at the British Museum was to be against BP’s sponsorship of the exhibition ‘I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria’, a display of treasures from the land of Iraq. I read lines...
Share price of BP falling – will Shell take over BP?
Blog post -
Jan 12, 2015
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...
سياسات النفط والصراع علي كوباني
Blog post -
Nov 25, 2014
كان يفترض أن تسقط كوباني. فعند هجوم داعش علي البلدة، حاصرتها القوات التركية من الشمال، مانعة عنها أي تعزيزات ومعتقلة مئات النازحين. وقد قصفت الطائرات الأمريكية قوات داعش في أماكن أخري، لتقودهم نحو روج آفا: المنطقة الكردية الكبيرة في شمالي سوريا والتي تحكمها ذاتيا الحركة من أجل مجتمع ديمقراطي (تيف-ديم،) والتي يرأسها سياسا حزب الاتحاد...
Hassan Jumaa Awad: Working class hero facing jail for oil union organizing
Blog post -
Apr 6, 2013
Hassan Jumaa, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions is facing a potential jail sentence when he faces a Basra court on Sunday 14th of April for ‘Overstepping the Duties of a Public Official’. His ‘crime’ is organising protests and building union strength in opposition to oil privatisation and also for standing up to...
“An unexpectedly engaging tale” – The Oil Road reviewed in the FT
Blog post -
Sep 24, 2012
This weekend the Financial Times featured a great essay by Ed Crooks on some accounts of the oil industry. We were thrilled that Crooks led with Fuel on the Fire and Platform’s new book The Oil Road, as well as Jeff Rubin’s The Big Flatline. Fuel on the Fire, published in 2011, reveals the oil...
From Glass Box to Smoke Filled Room – How BP secretly renegotiated its Iraqi oil contract, and how Iraqis will pay the price
Publication -
Jul 30, 2011
During the second half of 2009, Iraq held two auctions of its largest oilfields, awarding them to multinational companies such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil to operate under 20-year contracts. Between them the oilfields account for over 60% of Iraq’s reserves. The contracts were service contracts rather than the companies’ preferred production sharing agreements, which...
Iraq backs down to oil company pressure
Article -
Apr 1, 2009
Carbon Web Newsletter, Issue 11. The falling oil price has pushed the Iraqi government onto the back foot, allowing foreign oil companies to demand greater concessions. The Iraqi government has had to slash its 2009 budget from $80 bn to under $60 bn – and even this revised figure is based on an optimistic $50...
Life in the Landscape of Hydrocarbons – Exit Strategy III
Article -
Sep 1, 2008
By James Marriott – This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 10. How was it that the marshes of Hoo St Werburgh – so good for grazing cattle and sheep, so rich in birdlife – were turned into a site for Kingsnorth Power Station – with its chimneys and access roads,...
Iraq oil on the block
Article -
Jul 1, 2008
The real significance of the Oil Ministry’s bid round July 2008 Published on niqash.org Also available in Arabic Last week saw the biggest step so far towards transferring Iraqi oil into the hands of foreign multinational companies, sparking renewed accusations that the US-UK war on Iraq was really motivated by an oil grab. The Oil Ministry announced on 30...
Oil sell-off by stealth
Article -
Jun 26, 2008
Iraq’s oil service contracts are more than they seem 26 June 2008 By Greg Muttitt, Co-Director of PLATFORM Published on niqash.org Also available in Arabic and Kurdish Next Monday, the Iraqi federal government is set to sign oil development contracts with BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Total – their first since their 1925 concession was cancelled in the early 1970s....
