Platform

After Shell's highly-publicised "threat" to leave Nigeria given a current Petroleum Bill being discussed in Parliament that would re-assess excessive corporate revenues, Environmental Rights Action based in Benin City and Port Harcourt responds:  Read more

Shell has just signed what could be the world's largest biofuel deal ever - a $12 billion MoU with controversial Brazilian sugar came company Cosan. According to rainforest campaigners Rettet den Regenwald, the deal threatens to lead to deforestation in the Amazon, increased climate chaos and support Cosan in its continued use of slave labour.  Read more

The Western consortium developing the enormous Karachaganak natural gas field in Kazakhstan was fined $21 million yesterday for excessive dumping waste. British BG, Italian Eni and American Chevron, the companies developing the field on the the border with Russia, were convicted of environmental violations in 2008 by a regional court.  Read more

Tar sands extraction in Canada is devastating Indigenous communities, wildlife and vast areas of boreal forests, as well as being many times more carbon-intensive to produce than ‘conventional’ oil.

“We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked to the Tar Sands development on our doorstep. It is shortening our lives. That's why we no longer call it 'dirty oil' but 'bloody oil'. The blood of Fort Chipewyan people is on these companies' hands.” -  George Poitras, former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation  Read more

Nearly three months have passed since C Words closed and I've been re-reading the blog entries, my and others' copious notes and records, the heaps of rich and mostly positive feedback we've collected on paper, in emails, interviews on video, audio, and anecdotally.  Read more

According to the FT, industrial action by 14 harbour pilots at Milford Haven later this week could seriously disrupt supplies of oil and gas to the UK. The port includes Exxon's RBS-financed South Hook LNG Terminal which imports gas from Qatar.

The story highlights yet again the importance of projects like Workers Climate Action.
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An academic paper presented at a conference in India this week proposes that rapid fossil fuel extraction could change the planet's tilt and spin. Don't know enough about the science, so it might not be credible at all. But I can already see the PR teams lobbying for equal fossil fuel expansion potential everywhere in order to avoid any weight imbalance.  Read more

Unconventional shale gas has been discovered in the waters off Liverpool by IGas. Shale gas is natural gas lodged within shale rock, until recently largely inaccessible. Financial viability has increased with the expansion of hydraulic fracturing - "fracking" - the pumping of complex and polluting liquids into the rocks, to fracture them horizontally. This has led to major concerns across the US over water pollution. It's highly likely that to access the hydrocarbons off Liverpool, IGas will need to frack in the bay.  Read more

For 11 years the people of County Mayo in Ireland have been resisting Shell's efforts to develop a dangerous high pressure raw gas pipeline. Pat O'Donnell, a prominent local fisherman and anti-Shell campaigner defending his family and livelihood has been sentenced to 7 months in jail. Retired Maura Harrington was also convicted of charges including obstruction of the Shell site and damage to a Shell net on the cliff face at Glengad. Shell illegally placed the net there to stop sandmartins from nesting. This is yet another example of Shell's criminalisation of members of the Rossport community, aided and abetted by the Irish state.
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Nigerian investors attempting to end gas flaring in Nigeria have publicly accused Shell and other international oil companies of obstructing their plans. The Nigerian companies signed a Memo of Understanding with the Nigerian government to divert the gas to domestic power generation in December 2009.

The international oil companies continue to flare gas causing a health and ecological disaster, despite repeated court orders and community protests. Now there are apparently refusing to engage with proposals to end the flaring. Shell, which controls 92 out of the known 189 flare-sites in the Niger Delta, was names as particularly uncooperative, denying access to sites.

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