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Off The Deep End – Foreign Policy and the dash for offshore oil and gas
Publication -
Jan 10, 2011
This Platform report provides in-depth analysis of these trends and alerts policy makers to the environmental and safety concerns around present and planned offshore drilling in the UK North Sea and the Falkland Islands. It exposes significant capacity shortfalls in government inspection agencies and highlights key areas where better regulatory oversight is urgently required to...
Whose Bank? Our Bank! – RBS & the Future
Article -
Apr 1, 2009
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 11. Between October 2008 and March 2009, the Treasury pumped £33 billion of public money into ‘bailing out’ the Royal Bank of Scotland, to the point where the bank is now 90% owned by the UK taxpayer. Yet the government continues to insist that...
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...
Falling oil price opens new doors for BP & Shell
Article -
Apr 1, 2009
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 11. The falling oil price will significantly reduce the bargaining position of oil producing countries. The dramatic crash from an all-time high of $147 a barrel in summer 2008 to $34 in January 2009 has already reversed the trend of resource sovereignty seen...
RBS goes Arctic
Article -
Apr 1, 2009
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 11. In mid-March 2009, after the most recent bailout, RBS financed exploration work in previously untouched regions of Greenland’s Arctic. Acting as joint bookrunner with Merrill Lynch on March 11, RBS placed shares worth £116 million for Cairn Energy, a Scottish oil company. Although...
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,...
Oil & Violence in Turkey
Article -
Sep 1, 2008
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 10. At 11pm on 5 August, a major explosion ruptured the BTC pipeline near Yurtbashi village in Turkey’s eastern Erzincan province. The blast sent flames shooting up to 160 feet in the air. Nearby residents told PLATFORM that they heard explosions, before a plume...
Preventing an industrial tipping point
Article -
Sep 1, 2008
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 10. BP, Shell & the Canadian tar sands Under the pristine boreal forest in Northern Alberta lie the Canadian tar sands, a vast carbon time bomb that if ignited will dramatically increase the chance of passing a climate change tipping point. While a rational...
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....
Shell blasted on Iraq oil – ‘Plans risk more conflict’
Article -
May 20, 2008
Protest at annual shareholder meeting British oil giant Shell threatens to trigger greater conflict in Iraq with plans to control the development, production and depletion of Iraq’s oil reserves, campaigners warn today. This warning, from the coalition Hands Off Iraqi Oil, comes as Shell holds its annual meeting amid growing resistance to the company’s bid...
No Oil Law in Sight – Opposition Intensifies
Article -
May 9, 2008
Eighteen months since its first deadline and a year since cabinet approval, Iraq’s controversial oil law is still not on the statute book. The last four months have seen a consolidation of protests worldwide over the Bush administration’s top benchmark. Opponents of the oil law and the economic occupation it represents, including oil unions and...
