October | 2011 | The Price of Oil

Posts in October 2011

The Living Dead: will Big Oil’s record profits turn us all to zombies?
Lorne Stockman
Oct31
$100 Billion. That’s what the big 5 oil companies have made in profits since January 1. $102.85 billion to be more precise, according to my own calculations (see table below). That means that they’re on course to top $140 billion for 2011. More if oil prices keep rising. And that’s in a year when unemployment…
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Shell “Threatens” the EU with Long-Term Exit
Andy Rowell
Oct31
Last Friday, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, announced that it had doubled third quarter profits to $7.2 billion. So where is this cash coming from? Let’s not forget that Shell has spent millions over the last fifteen years trying to remould its image from a dirty oil company implicated in human rights abuses to a…
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Britain Backs Canadian Bullying Over Tar Sands
Andy Rowell
Oct26
Britain was joined by some Eastern European countries yesterday in backing Canada in its dirty fight to force the EU not to discriminate against the tar sands in the Fuel Quality Directive. A meeting of European environment experts yesterday had been expected to vote on a proposal by the European Commission to give a different…
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Talking Dirty in the President’s Ear
Andy Rowell
Oct25
The revolving door between the Obama Administration and TransCanada keeps on spinning, despite a decision on the hugely controversial pipeline just weeks away. Let’s not forget the first revolving door story, which revolves around Paul Elliott, who is TransCanada’s lobbyist promoting Keystone XL. Elliot worked for Hilary Clinton during her 2008 campaign. Recently released embarrassing…
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November 6th Tar Sands Action at the White House
Steve Kretzmann
Oct24
On Sunday November 6 the Tar Sands Action will return to Washington DC to send an unmistakable message to the President. Exactly one year before the election, we want to encircle the whole White House to ask President Obama to reject Keystone XL and live up to his promise to free us from the tyranny…
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From selling cigarettes to dirty oil
Andy Rowell
Oct24
For anyone who has watched the parody film “Thank you for smoking”, they would know that being a spin doctor for a tobacco company is one of the more dubious ethical career choices. If anyone had the inclination, there are thousands of internal tobacco industry documents online that show that the tobacco industry has systematically…
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Big Oil Buys Democratic Support for Keystone XL
Steve Kretzmann
Oct19
Earlier today, twenty-two House Democrats sent a letter to President Obama expressing their support for the Keystone XL pipeline project. The letter was announced in a press release from TransCanada. Both the letter and the press release predictably recycle discredited arguments for Keystone XL on energy security and jobs. What TransCanada didn’t mention is that…
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Shell Guilty Again?
Andy Rowell
Oct19
Just over two years after the Wiwa versus Shell case was settled in a New York Court room, the US Supreme Court has given approval for another ground-breaking legal case against Shell to be heard. The lawsuit will consider whether corporations can be sued in U.S. courts for allegedly aiding human-rights abuses overseas. Amazingly, the…
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Senators Express “Serious Concern” Over KXL
Andy Rowell
Oct18
Last week I blogged about the revelation that the US State Department had actually assigned an important Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to a company with financial ties to the pipeline company itself, TransCanada. The final contractor chosen – Cardno Entrix – was recommended by TransCanada despite the fact…
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BP: Reprieved from Death Row
Andy Rowell
Oct17
It’s been a good few days for BP. The company’s share price surged 5.1 per cent this morning after it was announced that Anadarko Petroleum will pay $4 billion to settle all claims for last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The US-based Anadarko Petroleum was a part-leaseholder of ill-fated Macondo well. As part of…
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