So seven years later it will come down to this weekend.  Whether President Obama can withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq by August will be decided by the Iraqi elections this weekend.
If the election passes off peacefully, American soldiers will probably go home on schedule. But if there is a repeat of the sectarian [...]

Having written about Shell in Nigeria for over fifteen years, we have known that there was huge internal disquiet about the company’s operations in the country.
In the aftermath of the murder of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995, Shell was pilloried in the international press for being complicit in his death and for being an [...]

Things are hotting up in the Niger Delta again and once again Shell finds itself at the centre of the vortex of violence and conflict.
On Saturday the company had to shut three oil flow stations in the Delta region after a pipeline was sabotaged by armed gun-men.
It was the same day as Nigeria’s militant group [...]

Yesterday, the Financial Times rocked the oil world with a story about how the Chinese state-owned oil company, CNOC, was in talks with the Nigerian Government to buy large stakes in some of the country’s key oil blocks.
The story was so compelling, because if it is accurate, it puts the Chinese in direct competition with [...]

A major two- year investigation by EarthRights International has found further, compelling evidence linking oil giants Total and Chevron to forced labour, killings, and high-level corruption in Burma.
The important report, called Total Impact, documents how Total and Chevron’s highly controversial Yadana gas project has generated just under $5 billion for the ruthless military junta in [...]