Great blog by the Antipodean scourge of the oil industry, Cindy Baxter yesterday on the Exxon Secrets website. Cindy, who remains one of a committed half-dozen sceptic watchers, had been reading Exxon’s latest Corporate Citizenship report. Buried deep in the report she spotted that Exxxon has admitted – for the first time – that the … Read More
Month: May 2008
Senator Quizzes Regulator on Speculators
So are speculators pushing the oil price up, and if so by how much? A leading American senator yesterday pressed the top futures market regulator for more information about speculation by big investment funds in crude oil futures. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officials testified that market forces are primarily responsible for the rising price … Read More
WWF Says Halt Canadian Oil Sale
Conservation group, WWF, is urging Canada to postpone the sale of key oil and gas rights in the Arctic Beaufort Sea, worried the drilling areas overlap with key habitats for polar bears and whales. “This sale is premature due to the absence of a completed Beaufort Sea management plan that would protect sensitive habitats, which … Read More
The Seabed Scramble
We just don’t know when to stop. It looks like we are going to chase every drop of oil under every remote sea-bed, no matter the consequences. A fevered scramble for control of the world’s seabed is going on – mostly in secret – at a little known office of the United Nations in New … Read More
G8: Halve Emissions by 2050
Environment ministers from the G8 have urged their leaders to set a global target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a small but vital step in the fight against climate change. But they stopped short of suggesting specific interim targets ahead of 2050, a key demand of developing countries in tough U.N.-led talks to … Read More
MEND launches another attack in Nigeria…
No let up in the chaos of Nigeria. Rebels from the Niger Delta blew up a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline yesterday, forcing the firm to cut production, helping keep world oil prices near record highs as a consequence. It was carried out while Shell was trying to repair damage caused by a series of similar … Read More
Oil Price Crisis: Market Sentiment or New World Order?
The record oil price of $135 a barrel is due to “market sentiment” rather than a shortage of supply, according to Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer. “What we say and what we see is there are no physical shortages,” said van der Veer. “There are no tankers waiting in the Middle East, there … Read More
Bay Area Regulators Approve Global Warming Fees
Air pollution regulators in the Bay area have voted overwhelmingly to approve new rules that impose fees on businesses for emitting greenhouse gasses. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s board of directors voted 15-1 to charge companies 4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Experts say the fees, which cover nine counties … Read More
UK Fire: Total “To Admit to Negligence”
One of the world’s largest oil companies will admit in court today that Britain’s biggest peacetime explosion was the result of negligence, according to the Times newspaper. In a statement to the newspaper, Total UK confirmed that it had advised claimants against it and Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL), a joint venture with Chevron, that … Read More
“Where is your corporate conscience?”
As oil climbed to a humungous record of $135 a barrel, yesterday US senators once again lined up Big Oil’s biggest executives and pummeled them with questions. “Where is the corporate conscience?” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies, who have earned a whopping $36 … Read More