Egyptian businessman admits personal motivation for gas deal with Spain / Eni

Businessman Hussein Salem – on the run from corruption charges in Egypt –  admitted his personal & political motivations in signing Egypt’s controversial gas export deals with Israel (via pipeline) and Spain (via Damietta LNG), in discussion with Egyptian journalist Mohamed Heikal: “Yes I made gas deals with Israel. We have a lot of gas...

Pillage not development: Egypt’s military junta & the European public banks

(this article initially appeared in Bankwatch Mail 50) Bread, freedom, dignity, social justice. These were core demands articulated during the democratic and inspirational Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square at the beginning of this year. Beyond this, there was widespread support for improved public services to the poor, a shift from subservience to US foreign policy,...

Mass environmental justice uprising engulfs Damietta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast

The popular movement against a Canadian petrochemical plant has forced the Egyptian government to shut down the Agrium-Mopco gas-fertiliser factory, after residents shut down highways, bridges and a deepwater port, and battled the Egyptian military in the street. Grainy photos and video-clips  tweeted out – especially by Al-Jazeera’s @Mansourtalk – show locals standing up to...

Is this the future we want for Egypt?

The fisherperson in the cartoon is asking “Is this the future that we want for Egypt? The company BP in Idku.”

Egyptian Oil Ministry protestors break through police barricade

Yesterday hundreds of protesting petroleum ministry workers broke through police barricades, pushing towards the Egyptian Cabinet’s offices in downtown Cairo. Large workers’ protests take place every day, demanding contracts and a minimum wage of 1200 Egyptian pounds a month. Al Ahram English reported that on Tuesday

Egyptian oil workers strike over conditions

Egyptian oil workers at the SUMED pipeline terminal on the Red Sea went on strike and protested demanding better employment rights this week, showing their power to slow the transit of crude from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. The striking workers help dock and unload very large tankers that use the SUMED Red Sea-Mediterranean pipeline...

Egyptian communities protest BP expansion plans

Egyptian communities concerned about a proposed BP gas plant on the Mediterranean coast have organised protests, including a sit-in on the site, road blockades and a raid on BP’s local office, as reported by Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. The residents of Idku, east of Alexandria, are opposing plans to pump gas ashore from BP’s offshore...

Royal Dutch Shell profiting from Sultan’s absolute rule in Oman

Unrest has reached Oman, the usually “sedate” and “tranquil” Sultanate on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Inspired by uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain, Omani youth took to the streets to challenge government corruption, cronyism, unemployment and a lack of democracy. Protests spread across the desert country, with police firing bullets and teargas from...

BP support for Mubarak dictatorship revealed

The millions on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez are furious at Mubarak for upholding his own interests and those of Western powers and foreign companies at the expense of the Egyptian people. For decades, British and American oil companies worked hand in glove with the Egyptian dictatorship, enjoying its “stability” (lack of democratic...

Oil, British foreign energy policy and Middle East repression

British oil interests are tightly interlinked with our governments’ recent political and military support for Gaddafi’s regime. Libya’s oil reserves – the largest in Africa – long had Western companies drooling. Shell beat its competitors to the chase, signing a $1 billion gas contract in 2004 during Tony Blair’s first visit to Libya. After three...

Secret documents uncover UK’s interest in Libyan oil

PLATFORM generated two articles in Sunday’s Observer that highlight the collaboration between the Foreign Office and Shell over Libya. The documents referred to show the deep and long-term foreign policy backing provided by the British government to Shell in its efforts to break into Libya. Corporate executives have easy access to the highest level of...