What is being forgotten in the fight between Maduro and Guaido is that whoever wins, the impetus on the victor will be on maximising output from the country’s oil reserves to help alleviate the country’s crippling economic problems. Because much of this is heavy oil, it is extremely carbon intensive to produce. And that can only be bad news for the climate.
Latin American oil
Outrage Over Peru Oil Spills: “It’s a crime that has no forgiveness”
There is growing outrage over pollution of two important rivers after three oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon.
Mexico’s “Sale of the Century”
Mexico is opening up its lucrative offshore oil fields for the first time in 80 years, and in the words of the Financial Times, which devotes a whole page of the paper to the subject, “it is shaping up to be quite a feast.”
Activists Criticise “Misguided” Chevron Court Ruling
Indigenous rights groups yesterday reacted angrily yesterday to what they labelled as a “misguided judgement” by a New York District Court Judge, Lewis Kaplan, who ruled that lawyers representing Amazonian Indians had used “corrupt means” and “fraud” to win a legal case against Chevron in Ecuador.
Significant Victory Against Chevron in Ecuadorian Pollution Case
In the long and tortuous legal battle between indigenous communities in Ecuador against the oil giant Chevron, the plaintiffs scored a major victory yesterday in, of all places, Canada.
Chinese Changing Global Energy Market
Chinese companies are changing their investment strategies, with implications for the global energy market
New Amazon Oil Threat
On the same day that Peru declares a State of Emergency over oil pollution in the Amazon, the Ecuadorians offer 3 million hectares of pristine forest to the Chinese to explore for oil.
Appeal Court Upholds Chevron Guilty Verdict
Chevron has been found guilty again. Yesterday, an Ecuadorian appeals court upheld a ruling that the oil giant should pay US$18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon. It was last February that a local judge had ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6 billion in damages, but the amount was doubled to US$18 billion because Chevron … Read More
Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal
Chevron is at the center of a scandal over the oil spill in the offshore Campos Basin Frade field about 230 miles from the coast of northeast Rio de Janeiro. Originally the company said that the spill was natural seepage from the field. Well, no, it appears it was not. The scandal began to unravel on … Read More
Chevron Guilty: Clean Up the Amazon!
Last week it was Shell’s AGM and its turn to face the wrath of shareholders and activists for its appalling environmental record. This week its Chevron’s turn with its AGM tomorrow. Protests kicked off in dramatic style yesterday, when activists from Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network rappelled from the Richmond Bridge in the San … Read More