The Chukchi Sea stand-off between environmental and Alaska Native groups and Shell has taken another twist, with a new legal action to stop the oil company’s plans to drill in the region next summer. Yesterday’s challenge was filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals a group of Native Americans and environmental organisations including the … Read More
Offshore
A green oil industry: a contradiction in terms..
No one would like to consider their job to be an oxymoron, essentially a contradiction in terms. But that is what you could describe the job title for the editor of a new online magazine called “Greening of oil magazine”. The new mag says it will be dedicated to “tracking energy’s environmental footprint”, but you … Read More
Shell Tells Senate: You are Hypocrites
We are used to calling Big Oil hypocrites, saying one thing and doing something completely different. But yesterday, it was their turn to stick the label on the politicians during an influential Senate hearing into the emotive subject of off-shore drilling. Executives from two major oil companies told Congress they were hypocrites for locking up … Read More
“We’ve got an environmental disaster unfolding”
And so it goes on. We may be able to send people to the moon but we are not able to stop a simple leak on an oil rig. Over two months after Thailand’s PTTEP’s well sprung a leak in the Timor Sea, the oil continues to pour into the sea at a rate of … Read More
Drilling in the Arctic? Yes We Can…
The joke going round Europe is that the only reason that President Obama won the Nobel Peace prize is that he is not President Bush. It’s not who he is but who he is not, that matters. He might not be President Bush but Obama is continuing the mistakes of the Bush era. In fact … Read More
The New Arctic Oil Rush Begins
Anyone who regularly reads this blog – or any other oil-related one – will know that the oil majors are running out of places to find oil. That’s why countries with huge reserves such as Iraq and Libya are seen as so important. The vast majority of known reserves are locked up in the Middle … Read More
Oz: Rig Still Polluting After 3 Weeks
What were you doing three weeks ago? Nothing personal, but can you remember what you were doing on the 21st August? Hold that date in your head. Ever since the 21st August oil, has been leaking from the offshore Montara oil platform in the Timor Sea off Western Australia. After a blow-out occurred the rig … Read More
Deeper into the Abyss
As the oil runs out, the fight is on to find more of the black stuff. The problem for the international oil majors, such as BP and Shell, is that most of the remaining oil is controlled by national oil companies such as Saudi Aramco. That is why countries such as Iraq are so important … Read More
“Our oil will be a blessing and not a curse”
As president Obama reads the reactions to his first fleeting visit to the Middle East, his first proposed African visit is also causing quite a stir. In just over a month, Obama will undertake his first visit to the continent. The country he will visit is not the powerhouse of West Africa, Nigeria, but its … Read More
Shell to Continue Arctic Drilling Despite Legal Ruling
At the end of last week, environmental campaigners and Native Alaskans were celebrating a huge victory. A US Federal Appeals court ruled that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast.