Ok – so not to be outdone by Exxon that hired Bush advisor Philip Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Shell has now appointed Gale Norton, a former interior secretary for the Bush administration, as a senior legal advisor. Gale Norton supports opening up the Arctic National … Read More
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Belarus Hits Russia With 30% Hike in Oil Transit Fees
The row between Russia and Balarus looks set to increase again after Belarus announced that it will increase tariffs for the transit of Russian oil through its domestic pipeline network by more than 30% starting on February 15.
Chavez Urges Action on Climate
He may have built his political dynasty on the back of Venezuela’s petroleum wealth, but President Hugo Chavez has suddenly urged the world to cut back on oil use to fight climate change. He wants to use some oil revenues in a venture to manufacture solar panels and has begun doling out millions of energy-saving … Read More
BP Invests $500 Million In Biofuels Research
Oil giant, BP has selected a consortium led by the University of California, Berkeley for a $500 million research programme focusing mostly on clean energy and biofuels. “This is our generation’s moon shot,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said at a press conference to announce the move. BP will allocate 80% of the money to … Read More
Nine Chinese Oil Workers Freed in Nigeria
Nine Chinese oil workers abducted last month by militant youths in the Niger Delta were released yesterday. The men were kidnapped on January 25 in a raid on the offices of the China National Petroleum Corporation which was doing a seismic study in the Sagbama area of Bayelsa state for Shell. One attacker was killed … Read More
Sceptics Offer Cash To Undermine IPCC
In the end the reality was even worse than the hype. When the IPCC finally published their report yesterday, it was bleak and damning. It was worse than we thought. They have concluded that average temperatures could increase by as much as 6.4C by the end of the century if emissions continue to rise, with … Read More
Meanwhile Eighteen Years On…
Just as Exxon Mobil posted the largest annual profits by an American company of just under $40 billion, the dark side of oil was exposed again. Eighteen years on, a new study by US government scientists has found that crude oil is still polluting the Alaskan waters near where the Exxon Valdez ran aground.
The Battle for Oil-Rich Kirkuk
Interesting piece in today’s LA Times about the struggle for Kirkuk, the oil-rich town in northern Iraq. American officials, regional leaders and residents are increasingly worried that the town could develop into a third front in the country’s civil war. All the different ethnic groups in the region – the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens are … Read More
Shell Reports Record Profits
Oil giant Shell has reported record profits to over $25 billion after high oil prices boosted its results. The figure, which is 21% higher than a year earlier, included a better than expected performance in the final three months of the year, when the company’s earnings figure rose 11% to $6 billion.
ExxonMobil Shelves $5.5bn PNG Pipeline
ExxonMobil and Oil Search, Papua New Guinea’s leading oil and gas producer, have ditched a $5.5bn plan to build a gas pipeline between PNG and Australia, saying they would focus instead on other more “promising investments” to tap into the vast gas reserves of the Pacific nation. The decision was anticipated as the project had … Read More