big oil

BP Set for Iraqi Oil License as Cabinet Approves Deal

File - The BP (British Petroleum) logo is seen at a gas station in Washington, in this Oct. 25, 2007 file photo. Iraq's government Saturday Oct. 17, 2009 approved an oil deal with a consortium led by British giant BP PLC to develop a prized oil field in the south. BP and its partner China's CNPC were the only winners in Iraq's first international oil auction in over 30 years in June for development rights for the 17.8 billion-barrel Rumaila field. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

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 Warned to Halt Campaign Against US Climate Change Bill

Protesters in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, venting their feelings against the climate change bill Photograph: AP

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.

Posted in astroturf, big oil

Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill

A rally against legislation to set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions in Houston on Tuesday. Oil companies bused in their employees. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle, via Associated Press)

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.

Warning: Oil Supplies Are Running Out Fast

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.

Reporting Incorporated: Gene Randall, Chevron, and the 'Dark Side'

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.

Shell Settlement with Ogoni People Stops Short of Full Justice

Shell's decision to settle out of court with a group of Ogoni people rather than take them on in New York means a measure of justice has come to the Niger Delta. The sum of $15.5m (£9.6m) may be peanuts for the company and nothing can compensate the 500,000 Ogoni people for generations of devastating pollution, human rights abuses and persecution.

Posted in big oil, Human Rights

Chevron, Shell and the True Cost of Oil

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.

Posted in big oil, Human Rights

Greenwash: Shell Betrays 'New Energy Future' Promises

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.

A Risk Big Oil Companies Can Afford to Share

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.

Posted in big oil
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