Chevron Guilty

February 15, 2011By Andy RowellBlog Post, Featured

In an historic victory, a small court in Lago Agrio, in Ecuador’s Amazon has ordered that Chevron  pay some $8.6 billion in damages. The court ruled in favour of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon who have spent the last 18 years seeking damages for systematic and chronic oil pollution. Chevron inherited the suit when … Read More

“Brazil is the future for the oil industry”..

September 24, 2010By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

Are investors put off by the risks of ultra deepwater drilling after the Deepwater Horizon disaster? If the frenzy down in Brazil is anything to go by – the answer is a staggering no. Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras, has just raised a whopping $70bn in the biggest share issue in corporate history. And the … Read More

Ecuador accuses oil firms of “abusing” country

April 19, 2010By Andy RowellBlog Post

It is the latest twist in the on-going soap opera of Ecuadorian oil. You have the Indigenous Indians fighting in the courts in a multi-billion battle against Texaco’s lethal toxic legacy – a battle that has been going on for decades. But now the tiny Latin American country is threatening to follow its powerful neighbour, … Read More

The Bust Before the Boom

March 30, 2010By Andy RowellBlog Post 2 Comments

The corridors of power in Buenos Aires would have been chortling with laughter yesterday as the British oil boom in the Falklands looked like going bust, even before it began. Over the last month, as the oil-industry hype grew, the war of words between Argentina and Britain escalated, threatening to become a full blown diplomatic … Read More

Has BP Backed A $7 Billion Wrong Horse?

March 11, 2010By Andy RowellBlog Post

Just days after outlining its business strategy BP is offering a massive $7 billion in cash to buy Devon Energy’s deepwater assets. In a broad-ranging deal, BP will pay Devon Energy $7 billion for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Interestingly the deal also involves extraction of the oil sands. … Read More

“Whipping up the spectre of an oil war”

February 19, 2010By Andy RowellBlog Post

Tensions are rising rapidly over the imminent oil exploration around the Falklands. Yesterday Argentina accused Britain of “whipping up the spectre of war” after the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, insisted the Falkland Islands were being properly protected to allow oil and gas exploration. “We have made all the preparations necessary to make sure the … Read More

$3 Billion to Keep Amazon Oil in the Soil

October 27, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

There has been a growing movement amongst communities from the South that are affected by oil exploitation to keep the “oil in the soil.” Campaigners from both Nigeria and Ecuador have long mooted the idea, and so have some governments. For the last two years Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has proposed that his government should … Read More

Bolivia Seizes Control of Gas Pipeline

June 3, 2008By Andy RowellBlog Post

The Bolivian government has taken full control of a key gas pipeline company after talks with the foreign firm that held a controlling stake broke down. It is the latest move in the Bolivian president’s recent effort to nationalise key industries. President Evo Morales said Transredes had been seized after US company Ashmore Energy International … Read More

Chavez’s Food for Oil Programme

May 14, 2008By Andy RowellBlog Post

Venezuela has announced plans to ship oil to Portugal in exchange for food products and other goods that have been running short in the South American country. Venezuela, Latin America’s largest oil producer, will send as many as 30,000 barrels of crude a day to Portugal by late 2008, President Hugo Chavez has said. He … Read More