Breaking News: In the UK right now, Greenpeace activists are shutting down Shell gas stations, in order to tell the company to stop drilling in the Arctic. As we stand 40 stations are currently shut down across the two main target cities: London and Edinburgh. In both capitals, Greenpeace plans to shut down every Shell … Read More
Shell
Nigeria Loses $1 Billion a Month in Oil Theft
Reports coming out of Nigeria this morning are that the country’s President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked senior oil officials from the state oil company NNPC in the interests of “greater transparency and accountability.” Jonathan has come under intense pressure to clean up the country’s oil industry. We have known for a while that theft and … Read More
Shell’s History of “Corporate Malfeasance”
Poor old Shell. Last week it was humiliated in a spoof action by Greenpeace and the Yes Men. This week its corporate reputation takes a battering in a report by the Alaska Wilderness League. The 51 page report, published as Shell gears up to start drilling in the Arctic, makes devastating reading. It concludes that … Read More
Shell Spoof Goes Global
Maybe in retrospect Shell should not have injuncted Greenpeace for disrupting its drilling rigs heading for the Arctic. For all it has done has made its opponents more creative in the way they will campaign against the oil giant. Late last week, there was widespread confusion across the American media, the internet, including Facebook and … Read More
Shell’s $4 Billion Arctic Lobby Campaign
In July, barring any last minute legal challenges, oil giant Shell looks set to cross the rubicon and start drilling offshore in the Arctic. Many environmentalists and indigenous communities have long fought and feared this day. Many of the veterans of the Exxon Valdez have long argued that the lessons of that disaster have still … Read More
70,000 Ask Shell to Clean Up in Nigeria
Seventeen years ago I was one of many protestors at Shell’s AGM in London at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Centre that lies in the shadow of Big Ben, near London’s Parliament. There were two issues facing the oil giant that day: in Nigeria the Ogoni playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, lay in a disgusting and degrading humid … Read More
Shell in Nigeria: Its Worse than Bad
And so it goes on. It might be a different day but the ongoing vortex of violence, pollution, protest and conflict continues in the Niger Delta. The oil giant, Shell is at the middle of this vortex, as it has been for decades, with the company unwilling to take adequate steps to stop the violence … Read More
Senate Fails to Cut Favors to Big Oil, Once Again
Earlier today President Obama challenged Congress to either stand with Big Oil, or stand with the American people. A vote on legislation introduced by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that would have eliminated over $2.4 billion in annual tax deductions to the top 5 oil companies was subsequently defeated a few hours later. Once again Congress … Read More
“Desperate” Shell Goes to Court Over Arctic Drilling
Last week I blogged on the landmark legal case against Shell by Nigerians that was being heard in the Supreme Court. That’s not the only court-room Shell was in last week. In an extraordinary preemptive legal strike the oil giant filed suit against more than a dozen environmental organisations that Shell believes might challenge its … Read More
Shell Should be Guilty Again
Although the BP / Deepwater Horizon trial maybe hogging the headlines, another courtroom battle is equally intriguing and important. It is almost 3 years since the trial of Wiwa versus Shell settled for $15.5 million on the eve of the trial. Along with the Wiwa action, there was a parallel legal case, Kiobel Versus Shell, … Read More