Iraq's cabinet has approved a deal with BP to develop the huge Rumaila oil field in the country's first international energy deal since the American-led invasion in 2003.
The agreement, which was brokered in June during the first round of tendering for licences to exploit Iraq's enormous and largely untapped hydrocarbon resources, should also send "a strong signal" to other energy groups that the Iraqi administration is keen to secure deals.
BP and Shell are
being told to tear up their membership of the American Petroleum
Institute (API) in protest at the organisation's attempts to incite a
public backlash against Barack Obama's energy and climate change bill.
HOUSTON — Hard on the heels of the health care protests, another
citizen movement seems to have sprung up, this one to oppose
Washington’s attempts to tackle climate change. But behind the scenes, an industry with much at stake — Big Oil — is pulling the strings.
The world is heading for a catastrophic energy
crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of
the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a
leading energy economist has warned.
Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation,
or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih
Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency
(IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy
supplies by OECD countries.
Former CNN correspondent-turned-PR consultant Gene Randall's video "report"
for oil giant Chevron might be unprecedented for how it blurred the
line between public relations and journalism. But the Randall-Chevron
production raises not only ethical questions, but also the question of
whether a surge of newly pink-slipped reporters might go, as one media
critic put it, "over to the dark side" and how that might further muddy
the line between news and corporate advocacy.
The economy is a shambles, unemployment is soaring, the auto industry is collapsing. But profits are higher than ever at oil companies Chevron and Shell. Yet across the globe, from the Ecuadorian jungle, to the Niger Delta in Nigeria, to the courtrooms and streets of New York and San Ramon, Calif., people are fighting back against the world's oil giants.
Shell and Chevron are in the spotlight this week, with shareholder meetings and a historic trial being held.
Shell, I have to report, is the new Exxon. The company that back in
December was filling this and other newspapers with double-page adverts
promoting its conversion to a "new energy future" of wind farms, hydrogen fuels, fuel made from marine algae and much else, has pulled the plug.
In his 2010 budget, President Obama wants $31.5 billion from oil
companies over the next 10 years with new taxes and by closing tax
loopholes. This is a mere $3.15 billion a year, but the oil execs still
say Obama is the creature stealing their black lagoon.
