RBS financed Canadian Tar Sands company goes under

Big Canadian tar sands company’s downfall shows that RBS’ tar sands finance is risky and reckless. OPTI Canada Inc. is in the process of being acquired by Chinese oil and gas exploration and production company CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC will pay US$2.1m for the Alberta-based company focused on developing major oil sands projects in Canada. OPTI Canada has...

RBS, what are you waiting for?

Yesterday the Royal Bank of Scotland held their 2011 Annual General Meeting at their Gogarburn headquarters on the industrial edge of Edinburgh (see Press Association video with Clayton Thomas-Muller from Indigenous Environmental Network and myself). The conference centre was flanked by press jesting with shareholders about diminishing returns. Much of the press group made a dash for...

Follow the Money – RBS article in Foto8 Magazine

(This article first appeared in the current, oil-themed issue of Foto8 magazine – http://www.foto8.com/new/in-print/8-magazine ) Despite the fact that there is not a single drop of crude to be found underneath the streets of London, the city acts as one the international capitals of the oil industry. Companies operate here to take advantage of the complex web...

RBS AGM – the aftermath and the follow up

On the 28th of April, RBS held its Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh. Amidst the various motions relating to executive bonuses and a report back on the rocky road to recovery, two people raised concerns over the impact that RBS’ investments were having on indigenous communities in very different parts of the world. Eriel Tchekwie...

BP’s ‘absentee landlords’ under pressure to stop tar sands

Yesterday, people from all over the country streamed into the Excel Conference Centre in the London Docklands to take part in the financial theatre that is the BP Annual General Meeting. One of the people who was protesting outside remarked that there was a “surprisingly low shareholder turnout of hedge fund managers in suits, and...