Platform

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

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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Local opposition is slowing Shell's plans to drill for "tight gas" in Mora County in North-Western Arizona. Until recently, extracting "tight" or "shale gas" wasn't economically viable, due to the smaller quantities dispersed across a wider rock deposit. However, new techniques known as "hydraulic fracturing" or "fracking" allow oil & gas corporations to access these deposits, leading to aggressive new exploration and drigling programmes. Fracking involves injecting a slurry of sand and chemicals at high pressure into the rock. The fracking fluid weakens and fractures the surrounding rock, making it more permeable to the surrounding gas. Concerns over toxicity, health risks and pollution of water have led to much opposition to the technique by local communities in the US.
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Internationally recognised marine scientist Rick Steiner was forced to resign his position as professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program in Anchorage. Prof Steiner has played an important role in recent years in raising concerns over oil company, particularly Shell, operations in Sakhalin, Alaska and Nigeria.

Pressure from the oil industry and the US government National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pushed the University of Alaska to cut off Prof Steiner's "Sea Grant" funding. Documents show that Steiner was punished for publicly expressing his concerns over plans for offshore drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, and for criticizing a joint University of Alaska / Shell Oil conference on the issue. Steiner had previously warned that the $300 million paid by the oil industry to the University compromised its academic integrity.  Read more

First Nation and environmental groups in Alaska are legally challenging Shell's permit to drill in the Arctic Chukchi Sea this summer. The Chukchi lies north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and is habitat for endangered species including bowhead whales, walrus and polar bears, which play a crucial role in the way of life of Alaskan Native communities.

Yet the Chukchi also holds 15-30 billion barrels of recoverable crude and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Until now, this frontier has barely been explored - only five wells have ever been drilled there. But in 2008 Shell paid $2.1 billion to acquire exploration leases, to complement its existing leases further east in the Beaufort Sea and south in Bristol Bay. According to Shell, it has already completed four years of "seismic" (explosives) and "hazard work", describing the region as possibly home to "the most prolific, undiscovered hydrocarbon basins in the US". In December 2009, Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved Shell's plans to drill three exploration wells this summer.
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Another investigation by Taimour Lay shows the risks of Tullow & Heritage's oil finds on Lake Albert fueling new fighting between armed forces (armies and militias) in the region.

"Heritage Oil, owned by former mercenary fighter Tony Buckingham, had donated speed boats to the FARDC (Congolese national army) in March 2007 and had also been responsible for the delivery of 30 Land Rover jeeps to Bunia, which were then distributed to local commanders across the region."

Bunia has been the scene of repeated clashes between government forces and militias since then, causing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Rukwanzi Island, on the international border, was the scene of Uganda-DRC clashes in 2007. (c) Taimour Lay  Read more

As the California Zephyr climbs slowly into the Rockies, my fellow train passengers in the observation carriage stare in silence through the enormous windows, as we pass hundreds of miles of narrow gorges, red rock cliffs and frozen waterfalls. Coyotes run through the snow as the train approaches, while studious bald eagles perched above streams ignore us, focusing instead on the fish in the clear water.  Read more