$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 … Read More
Big Oil Profits
Shell “Threatens” the EU with Long-Term Exit
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 … Read More
A tax break for refiners paid for by school budget cuts: a taste of things to come?
In a chilling preview of what life may be like if Rick Perry were to become president, a commission appointed by the Texan Governor is proposing handing Valero and other Texan refiners a tax refund worth $135 million. That would be bad enough but where will they find the money in these hard times? Around … Read More
BP Accused of “Backroom Dealings” in Iraq
The oil industry watchdog PLATFORM has issued a report which exposes the extent to which the British oil giant BP has gained control over one of Iraq’s most lucrative oil fields, the super-giant Rumaila, near the Southern city of Basra. The report, “From Glass Box to Smoke Filled Room – How BP secretly renegotiated its … Read More
Subsidy Battle Hots Up
The showdown on gas prices and subsidy removal will intensify this week in Washington, when senior oil and gas executives are hauled before Congress to explain record profits at a time when consumers are hurting at the pumps. Legislation is being worked on by Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate finance … Read More
As Gas Prices Remain High, US Becomes Net Exporter of Fuel
Until Sunday night one of the main talks of the town in Washington was gas prices. Now the talk of the town is Bin Laden’s death. Oh and gas prices. Because the issue of high gas prices is not going away any time soon. A 36 per cent rise in the last year put pays … Read More
Push Back Against the Climate Deniers and End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
At the same time it appears that big oil and coal climate denial campaigns are successfully stifling climate action in Congress and the Obama Administration, a group of America’s top scientists stepped up to the plate on Tuesday and called on House and Senate leaders to “take a fresh look at climate change.” And none … Read More
Oil companies threaten Nigeria over reforms
The showdown between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands is not the only row brewing on the international oil scene. A bitter battle is brewing between oil giants such as Shell and Chevron and the Nigerian government over proposed reforms of the oil and gas sector. The oil companies are threatening that up to $50 … Read More
Obama Official Slams “Poison Politics” of Oil Industry
We have always known that the oil industry and the Republican Party make close bedfellows, but now Obama’s Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, has launched a stinging attack on the oil industry saying it was acting “like an arm” of the Republicans. He lambasted the industry for issuing “untruths” about the Obama Administration’s oil and gas … Read More
Shell Under Fire on all Sides
We will hear shortly when Shell will finally face charges of being complicit in human rights abuses in a New York court room, after the trial was delayed from last week. The pioneering court case is continuing to generate international news: it was the first item on the BBC’s flagship Today Programme, and has been … Read More